The business of Client-centred design

Teaching is a wonderful privilege. Last Tuesday Sarah presented on innovative architecture practices and name-dropped some local (Australian) examples to 3rd year students at Monash University.

Students are learning business as usual. And that's good because they HAVE to understand the Client Architect Agreement and the phases of a project and the importance of Professional Indemnity insurance and all that jazz. What Sarah had the opportunity to talk to them about was that when they have understood the rules and the boundaries, there are positive ways to get practice closer to clients and reduce the "yuck" factor of fronting up to every job with a 17 page contract.

Yes I talked about Architect GP. She also name-dropped:

Whisker Architecture - who offer three levels of feasibility/masterplanning reports for clients wanting to know what their options are.

Georgina Wilson Architects - who has gone viral with her Floor Plan Review service, now with clients all over the world.

Maytree Studios - who have developed a way to prepare fee proposals in under an hour of office time

Amelia Lee and Undercover Architect for taking real knowledge about design and project decision making directly to clients with training packages and support.

Sarah also cited the work of Rory Hyde, Dr. Harriet Harriss and Roberta Marcaccio in looking at "Architects after Architecture: Alternative Pathways for Practice".

In other words...Architect GP far from alone in this agitation of business! But we are a very active part of this positive movement towards customer focused design service.

The astute subject coordinator noted afterwards that this innovation seems to be coming predominantly from women. Look at our community of architects and you might agree that this is true (though not exclusively the case, of course).

Why? The status of women in the profession (which data shows isn’t that great) is potentially the "stick" driving women to innovate more than their male colleagues. The "carrot" side of the equation is that women approach the profession differently and want to see that reflected in what they offer clients and how. In big general terms, women seek to create relationships and guide our clients, whereas the traditional masculine model seeks to apply solutions and save the client. And of course it's not Either/Or, rather, Both/And.