What’s news at Sounds Like Design?

The Sounds Like Design blog began in 2016 and since then we’ve covered business development and marketing topics, important policy and regulatory issues that affect the profession, and we’ve featured guest posts from several influential architects.

If you’d like to contribute to the blog about a topic or issue that you are passionate about, or think is important to share with your peers and colleagues, email us with your story idea, suggested images and proposed deadline, and we’ll collaborate to help you tell your story to a wider audience.

To BIM or not to BIM; that is the question
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

To BIM or not to BIM; that is the question

Architect Clinton Cole believes that Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) tools – which measure and reduce embodied energy impacts during the design phase – should be integrated into all design and construction project types, over a certain value threshold. New legislation in New South Wales may usher in these reforms. This article explains the benefits in relation to climate emergency and embodied carbon.

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Which Marketing Metrics should you track in your architecture practice?
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

Which Marketing Metrics should you track in your architecture practice?

Are you confused about which Marketing Metrics to track in your architecture practice? This blog post and free spreadsheet tracker will help you work out which of your current activities and channels help you to connect with future clients, and where to spend more time and effort to reach them in future.

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How to market your practice like a Hollywood blockbuster movie
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

How to market your practice like a Hollywood blockbuster movie

The first question in my Live Q&A series is: What percentage of turnover should a practice allocate to a marketing budget?, and I’ve got two answers - one short and one long.

The short answer is the industry-standard figure, and the long answer includes marketing tips from Hollywood film marketing, to help you enhance your architecture practice strategy and activities.

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Welcome to the future!
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

Welcome to the future!

Kevin McCloud asked: “With climate change, how do we define what is ‘just enough’ for all of us?,” Kevin asked. “And by all of us, I don’t mean us in the room; I mean the 7.5 billion people on the planet… or 15 billion by the end of the century.” And then showed a photo of a house in Sydney… find out which one!

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Who is my audience (and how do I connect with them)?
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

Who is my audience (and how do I connect with them)?

With the threat of #ClimateEmergency - and the need to rethink how and where we rebuild as communities try to recover from devastating bushfires - the world needs the input of Architects more than ever. But are you talking to potential customers in a way they can easily connect with?

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What are juries REALLY looking for in Awards entries?
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

What are juries REALLY looking for in Awards entries?

Have you ever tried to distil and define the characteristics that juries are looking for in Awards entries?

Or wondered how you can emphasise those qualities in your entry submissions? I’ve conducted some research into what various architecture juries have been seeking in entries in recent years, and the results may surprise you…

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Does your architectural offer speak directly to future clients?
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

Does your architectural offer speak directly to future clients?

Architects have a lot to offer the world right now - some would say a social responsibility to act in the face of climate emergency - yet the existing ways of communicating those important messages are not currently reaching and resonating with the general public. How might you start to change that?

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

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 can you do to improve your chances of success?

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Out with the new, in with the old
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

Out with the new, in with the old

I’ve always been convinced that architecture should be for everyone – my Churchill Fellowship in 2003 looked at architectural responses to public and social housing, and I saw some wonderful projects on my travels. There are some great examples springing up here in Australia now too, but we have a long way to go before architecture is seen as a mainstream offering…

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Did you place a bet or lodge a protest?
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

Did you place a bet or lodge a protest?

Breathe Architecture – known for its stance on affordable housing, sustainable design, #paytherent, and as the creator of a growing number of values-driven communities – announced via Instagram that it was saying “Nup to the Cup”…

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Are you an Architect or a "designer"?
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

Are you an Architect or a "designer"?

Australian consumers tend to be fixated on “design” and “designers”, not on the other critical stages that an Architect can and should oversee in the construction process. You know what I’m talking about: design development, documentation, contract administration, tender, handover and defects (and dare I say it, post-occupancy evaluation??).

How might you start to change that?

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Architects as storytellers
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

Architects as storytellers

Architects are storytellers: Architecture is the art and science of giving form to stories.

Stories about people, places, events, materials. Architecture captures single ideas or the mood of a community. It pays homage to history, while always looking to the future.

So how can you use stories to connect with future clients?

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How well do you know your clients?
Rachael Bernstone Rachael Bernstone

How well do you know your clients?

Do you formally ask past clients for feedback once a project is complete? Or do you set aside time to ask prospects about what it is they really need and want? Why is it important to take the pulse of your clients and the market every now and then?

Find out in this article, which contains two pathways to gather valuable intel.

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