MEDIA: Three Architects Who Took the Leap
In this interview with ArchitectureAU, Sarah explains what lead to the founding of Archtiect GP.
Architecture is a hard profession. I doubt there’s an architect in Australia that hasn’t at least fleetingly pondered changing careers during a challenging project. Three architects who took the leap shared their stories with me, offering a glimpse into the realities of pursuing paths less followed.
Robbie Speight, having recently won the ACT AIA Emerging Architect of the Year Award, was frustrated with elitism within the profession and having to work huge hours. “The year I decided to move I had been leaving the office at 6pm to have dinner with my wife and put my newborn daughter to bed,” he said. “I would then return to the office to continue work until after midnight.”
Speight’s feeling of having little reward for his effort was amplified working alongside development managers, who appeared to have superior work-life balance and yet more influence over the project than the architect. “I thought what better way to influence incredible project outcomes than be on the client side making the decisions, and with the full view of the project’s life and financial considerations.” With this realisation, Speight made the transition to development manager.
Sarah Hobday-North came from a family of architects so leaving the family practice was hard enough, but switching careers was a terrifying challenge to her identity. Regardless, it was “one tender too many” that pushed her “perfectionism, exhaustion and burnout” to its ultimate edge. Identifying that she enjoyed, and was good at, architectural education, she sidestepped into high school teaching. Like many architects who identify so strongly with their title, Hobday-North felt that leaving architecture would make her feel like a “sellout” or “failure,” so she told herself that she wasn’t quitting, she was “adapting her knowledge and skills.”
Daniel Moore had been growing his own practice and had come to accept that he couldn’t be fussy with jobs. While the plan was working, he says, “I soon realised that I might be cultivating a business that would lead to more projects that didn’t align with my original intentions for starting my practice.” At the same time, he was dedicating around 20 hours a week to volunteer advocacy for the profession. This effort was recognised when he was awarded the 2022 AIA National Emerging Architect Prize and was soon after offered the role of Victorian state manager for the Institute. It felt like the circuit breaker Moore needed.
Like any fresh start, the possibility sounds rosy, but what is life outside of practice really like?
For Speight, the experience has been positive, but not without its own unique frustrations. Generally, he hasn’t looked back. “The pressure on me now is less complicated: make the project go smooth and make it go fast.” Along with enabling the kind of influence he had long hoped for, the role has broadened his knowledge of building and the industry. In his words, “I have learnt far more in this role about the life of a building than I ever could have in architecture.”
Would Speight ever return to practice? Never to large commercial practice, but he continues to enjoy designing houses for friends and family. “We open a bottle of wine and start scribbling on napkins while doing the dishes. Pretty soon we’re standing on the kerb or in unloved corners of the garden thinking about how it could all be.”
Sarah Hobday-North’s experience was not so positive. Heartbreakingly, she says, “I burnt out all over again. My anxiety skyrocketed. My family was concerned. I had a panic attack in the supermarket and resigned in term two.” She very gently returned to practice, working privately on small jobs for friends, and also started a family at this time. “I never applied for another architecture job. Instead, year by year, my work life evolved in concert with my personal life and I slowly learned that there is more to life than architecture. And better, that living makes you a better architect.”
As tough as Hobday-North’s trajectory has been, it was instrumental in shaping her current entrepreneurial adventure, Architect GP. “Eventually, I learned to be a businesswoman, not just an architect. I also learned that when you have two skills, whatever they are, your superpower lies in the overlap, because that is where you will have unique insight.” Architect GP unites a network of architects across Australia to offer in-home design packages and architectural consultancy. It provides a transparent entry point to the 95% of homeowners who don’t currently engage an architect.
For Daniel Moore, working at the Institute has been “a revitalising experience.” Switching pace to focus on his passion for advocacy has given him the space to set some intentions for when he one day returns to practice. “My focus will be on prioritising the mental wellbeing of both myself and my staff. From my experiences at the Institute, I’ve learnt that this requires transparent communication with clients and effectively managing their expectations. I intend to accept only projects that align with my practice’s ethos.”
I anticipate that our reactions to these stories will help to serve a self-reflection on our feelings in our current roles. For those of us in a good place, these insights might remind us of some of the things we love about our work or extinguish fleeting romantic ideas of turning our back on it. But for others, the experiences and growth shared by all three of these architects could fuel further enquiry into the path we wish to take. What strikes me is that the decisions these architects made were fuelled by their sense of purpose. As an architect who gets up in the morning to push the needle on sustainability in the housing sector, I can relate to past jobs that felt unrewarding, or even conflicting, when they weren’t serving that purpose. If we’re unhappy in our roles, we should interrogate our sense of purpose and then consider whether we can find, or indeed make our own, architecture role that better serves this purpose or take the equally-respectable sidestep into a different career that can harness our broad skillset.
To all readers, I’d like to leave a final few words of advice from Hobday-North. She says, “You remain an intelligent, knowledgeable, mature and skilled person after you leave or if you stay” and reminds us that “you are allowed to use your skills as you want to.” Her last remarks to those thinking of leaving architecture, “I say talk with those that you respect and with the people that love and know you best, and then do what is best for you.”
