Is your architecture practice prepared for the post-climate change era?

How your architecture practice prospers – or fails – in the post-climate emergency era will depend on two main factors: a) how well you adapt to the changing market and environment, and b) how well you can communicate your offering to consumers. 

What you do, why you do it, the benefits for clients who take up your offering, the costs associated with failing to invest in good design… These are some of the chief communications challenges currently facing the profession. 

Communication is a two-way street, so equally important is the issue of taking in new information – including relevant hypotheses, theories, proposals, ideas, research projects, data, evidence, partnerships, collaborations and technologies – as it comes to light.

Graphic from The Knowledge Problem, Evidence Based Design Journal

I stumbled across some interesting – but sobering! – statistics last week, thanks to the ArchiTeam Awards. According to the Evidence-Based Design Journal, 80% of designers surveyed said they perceived a need for evidence in the design phase, but only 16% reviewed literature as part of normal practice.

A whopping 68% admitted to reviewing little or no research literature (which perhaps explains why my Value Proposition database on this website has gained so little traction since I launched it at the beginning of this year!)

The same survey found that 71% of respondents NEVER conduct any post-occupancy analysis (POA, aka POE) on completed projects, and only 5% do undertake it. In case you are wondering, these results emerged from a global study that elicited 420 responses in 2013. 

I’m not aware of any Australian research about research in practice, but these findings confirm Professor Flora Samuel’s findings - from Why Architects Matter - that, in the UK, only 3% of firms undertake any POA at all.

To me, this lack of interest and engagement with both external and internal research – which has the potential to support your messaging around the value of your service offering - represents a serious challenge for the profession. 

This point was brought home to me as I prepared to facilitate the Architects Declare forum in WA; I noticed that while there is no shortage of plans, proposals, blueprints and frameworks to tackle the climate emergency as it relates to the built environment, Architects themselves admitted to not knowing where to find existing resources, and conceded they felt disconnected from their peers, and powerless to act. 

This sense of disconnection flows through to the profession’s relationship with the public, consumers, and users of buildings, too. In essence, Architects have largely failed to communicate the value of architecture as a transformative service to a wide audience. 

While the climate emergency is an appalling challenge, and the issues surrounding population growth in cities are complex, these concerns provide Architects with an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate leadership. And there are several key areas of low-hanging fruit, such as retrofitting and upgrading existing homes to mediate and mitigate climate change; and repurposing and reusing existing buildings as a way of saving embodied energy and reducing waste. 

To excel in either of these areas, though, Architects need to make a case for why they are important – why good design matters! – and then prosecute that case to the public.

The power of good messaging and branding – especially in the residential market – should not be underestimated: you just have to look at Three Birds’ marketing campaigns, including the one where they asked homeowners to hand over their keys, budget and total creative control to the trio.

Can you imagine your clients handing over their keys, budget and total creative control? (You can see more about this campaign on their website, here. Given this type of service offering is directly competing with residential architects, it pays to understand what the competition is up to).

Remember: climate scientists are warning that life on earth will change irrevocably if we don’t rein in carbon emissions and halt temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, and Three Birds and their ilk are not tackling that fundamental issue at all. 

In my opinion, the architecture profession is at risk of becoming more irrelevant, if it doesn’t respond to, adapt to meet, and communicate the value of good design, in tackling this emergency.

Is your practice in a good position to promote your message about why it should survive and prosper, to a wide audience? If not, what steps do you need to take?

In the first instance, you can read my weekly archi-news round up The Drill every week, to keep up with events and developments from architecture to government policy to competitor offerings.

You can also start thinking about how you’ll improve your practice comms in 2020 - I'll be running workshops and a course, so keep an eye on my Instagram for details.

Thirdly, you can join my new Facebook group, Architecture Matters by SLD to discuss why the dual challenges and opportunities of climate emergency and population growth; how to "grow the pie" and extend the influence of Architects, rather than competing for diminishing market share; and how to employ communications and marketing strategies to enhance the business of practice.

Everyone is welcome, so click on the link above and join us today!