Good Communications in Architectural Practice and Management - Essay Example

Good Communications in Architectural Practice and Management Architecture and Communications What is an architect Why is good communications important for an architect's practice There are two ways of answering these questions in our own words. We can do so in a dry and serious manner using technical jargon at which we attempt to give life and colour to a serious professional technical vocation. Or we can answer creatively in a way as to reflect the excitement and personal fulfilment enjoyed daily, and exclusively, by the 30,000 or so members of the Royal Institute of British Architects who have made architecture their lifelong passion, and the thousands more who are aching to join them in this and in the coming years. What shall it be Why not do both So what is an architect Dispensing with the usual academic recourse to etymology, an architect is simply "someone qualified to design buildings and supervise their construction." (Collins, 1991). Adding dryness and formality to this raw definition, we can further say that: "An architect produces detailed workings and drawings so that buildings are designed effectively, manages the building project according to tight specifications, negotiates and coordinates with other professionals involved in the project, prepares planning applications, ensures that damages to the landscape and environment are limited, and appraises and consents listed buildings and conservation areas according to the needs of the client" (Hobsons, 2006). This is quite a job, not an easy one to carry out, and the reasons are not hard to miss. To put it simply, an architect is a planner, draughtsman, technical designer, a building supervisor, contracts negotiator, bureaucrat, manager, environmentalist, and conservationist all in one. But even then, considering the number of roles that an architect needs to fulfil to high standards, there is one trait that runs through all these and that determines whether the architect will forever be dabbling in mediocrity and penury or living decently and in comfort whilst being good, or be a successful virtuoso with pen, manual or digital, designing buildings at the cutting edge of genius. That singular trait is the ability to communicate. Yes, a good to great architect must be a good communicator, for the simple reason that architecture is a form of communication, and how the architect handles this important component of the job determines to a large extent how successful the practice would be. Why do we say that architecture is communication And what do we communicate Our answers to these questions lead us to the creative answers to our first two questions. What is Communication Architecture as Communication Communication is the process of transmitting information from an individual or group to another (McCloskey, 1993). Ants do it; even the birds and the bees do it. Any creature with information finds the need to communicate it to another, and this is how things get moving in our world. The whole animal kingdom (let's not go into genetics, please) depends on communication for their existence, growth, and survival; great civilizations have come and gone because of it. So important is communications to life that a successful architectural career depends on it. The architectural profession lives and thrives on communication, because architecture in itself is an expression of ideas, a manner of transmitting information, using a combination of technical and artistic languages, a mode where the message and the medium blend into one material structure that often lives long after clients, architects, and builders have gone. An architect is not merely a designer of buildings but an interpreter of dreams, a professional artist who in a design captures visions both simple and complex. Architects are masters of technology, and by their work they transform our imaginations, making them visible for the whole world to see, admire, live in, and use. Like messages trapped in the mind that goad listeners to action, architecture traps minds and allow these to function within the spaces enclosed by the structures they design and build. Architecture is a field where communications is a key to success: translating the needs of clients, capturing their minds and souls, and transmitting these to the world through a mass of concrete, steel, and glass that reflect them faithfully as to captivate the soul. Whilst poor communications can destroy relationships, it can also lead to bad architecture that can annihilate grand dreams and designs. Thus is architecture a form of communication, and why it is important for architects to learn how to communicate, not only to turn mental imagery to plans on paper, but to convert those plans into reality. Communication: Plans to Reality An architect has to learn to be good at different levels of communication: getting the needs of the client, transforming those needs to paper, either on his own or with the help of a team of draughtsmen, transmitting the information to engineers and builders, dealing and negotiating with government bureaucrats for licenses and permits, processing feedback from construction workers and letting them share the detailed vision as it exists in the architect's mind, filing the thousand and one reports needed to keep the whole process of building in motion, and the most important of all, communicating to one and all that like any other work of art and engineering, the work is finished. Throughout it all, the architect by hook or by crook needs to be adept at the art of communication. We say by hook, because communication is a skill that can be learnt and practiced to achieve a level of perfection that makes the architect a great communicator, capable of reassuring and soothing even those clients with mercurial egotistic personalities that deadlines can be met, and if not, that perfection takes time, and extensions can only mean that we are after assuring the structure's integrity. Good buildings, like good wine, take time. The architect also has to soothe the worried minds of investors, men of finance who do not care much about beauty and symmetry, function and form beyond that which returns on investment could calculate. Above all, the architect has to convince technical-minded engineers and, if they happen to have projects in developing countries, semi-literate workers that a bolt, a screw, or a cantilevered beam is there for a higher purpose, aesthetic or structural, and not just to overspend budgets or satisfy a passing artistic whim. On the other hand, if like the renowned Baron Norman Foster the architect suffers from dyslexia (Simfonec, 2004), he or she has to be a great communicator "by crook", dazzling the world with designs so forceful that the finished work takes over the job of telling the world with a strength so overpowering that those who see it are left speechless and can only utter a solitary word: "Genius!" And what about the law and the people who enforce them Architects live by codes and rules because they know that their structures must withstand the ravages and abuses of time and of nature, and of normal and crazed men as 9/11 so plainly taught. Dealing with lawyers is part of the architect's job. Fortunately, compliance to the law and to codes act as eternal memory aides to remind architects that, amongst all the skills they must possess, communication is one of primary importance. The Architect's Code We actually talk of at least two sets of codes architects in the U.K. abide by, that of the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and the other, of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The ARB is a government body that maintains a registry of architects who can practice the profession in the U.K. (ARB, 2006), whilst the RIBA is a registered charity awarded with a Royal Charter in 1837 for its remit of overseeing the general advancement of the architectural profession (RIBA, 2006). The codes of conduct (ARB, 1997; RIBA, 2005) of the ARB and the RIBA are similar in many ways and for obvious reasons, both providing clear guidelines showing why good communications is important for an architect's practice and management, whether working on his or her own, as part of a large architectural office or the owner or manager of one. Rather than cover both codes comprehensively, we could point out provisions in the code based on real-life work situations that show out why an architect must exercise good communication skills. Act with integrity. The first standard principle of professional conduct of an architect is to "act with honesty and integrity at all times" (ARB Standard 1). The RIBA advises that the "architect must act with impartiality, responsibility, and truthfulness at all timesshould not be a party to any statement which they know to be untrue, misleading, unfair to othersavoid conflicts of interest and should such arise, declare such to parties affectedrespect confidentiality and privacy of others" (RIBA, 2005, p.4). All these quoted provisions from the first principle of professional conduct require good communication skills. Truthfulness, fairness, sense of responsibility, and honesty are marks of correct and proper communication. They presume that the architect receives and transmits the message - be it the client's needs, a worker's observations, or a legal regulation - as faithfully and as promptly as possible for the good of everyone concerned. To do otherwise is to act against this first principle. A flaw in the transmission of information can lead the architect to become a party in spreading falsehood, destroying reputations, or in acting irresponsibly. These an architect can never allow. Architects need to develop not only good verbal communication skills, but also their writing communication skills, as ARB Standard 1.5 states: "Whenever an Architect offers, or takes part in offering, a service which combines consulting services with contracting services, the Architect should make it clear to all parties in writing that their services will not incorporate the independent functions of an Architect." Good writing communication skills will help the architect "make clear to all parties" that he or she is not performing multiple roles that would result in a conflict of interest that threatens the professional integrity of the architect. Such a threat would undermine the confidence of all parties concerned, as the "consultant" reviews the architect's plans whilst the "contractor" implements them. At all times, the architect has to communicate with honesty, even when it is difficult to do so, as in Standard 10.5 where the Registrar (of the ARB) needs to be informed "if (the architect is) convicted of an indictable offence(or) sentenced to imprisonment" Work with competence. The second principle is that in the performance of their work, architects "shall act competently, conscientiously, and responsibly, and must be able to provide the knowledge, the ability, and the financial and technical resources appropriate for their work" (RIBA, 2005). These high professional standards bind architects to perform work to the best of their abilities that, because of the leadership position they occupy in the relationship amongst clients, contractors, engineers, and workers, demand equally high levels of the ability to organise and manage the whole process from capturing the visual dream of owners to the topping up and finishing of the structure. The ability to communicate properly is a management skill that includes the ability to plan, lead, organise, and control people and processes (Drucker, 1997). The architect's education in these matters begins at architecture school, where design projects and deadlines and working with teams of fellow students hone the future architect's management and organising know-how and skills. During the few years spent as a draughtsman or an apprentice, the architect continues to build the skills of communication, learning from good experiences and, especially, even from mistakes. This writer knows, for example, of an architectural firm that lost a project it could have won because one of the lead project architects made a communication blunder when he told the office messenger "Please bring this envelope as soon as you can" without informing the poor messenger that he had only an hour to go before the bid submission deadline. Of course, the envelope, with the bid, arrived too late in the day. This is why the ARB makes it clear (Standards 11 and 11.5) that architects need to "work responsiblyand keep their client informed(on) any issue which may significantly affectquality or cost" Until the project is finished (and for an architect, "finished" is a rather open-ended word), an architect has to keep the flow of information free and uninterrupted. Such a task is possible only if the architect is a competent communicator. Care for relationships. The third principle (RIBA, 2005) is that architects "shall respect the relevant rights and interests of others." Any person who decides to exercise architecture as a profession must, out of necessity, have to learn how to deal with people. Dealing with people demands mastery of the way people communicate. One need not be running an architect's office to realise the amount of information -trivial and essential, visual and numeric, spoken and written - that any architect needs to manage. Management of information is a characteristic of the process of communication. The architect has to learn how to look at every piece of information and determine its impact on people and relationships. At times, tough decisions must be made before taking action. Consider, for example, a seemingly trivial detail like an "ugly" protrusion upon a 4-storey building designed by a colleague. An architect who is poor at managing communications and their impact on relationships might openly point out this fact ("This spire is ugly") and hurt another person's feelings ("It took me weeks to design that") or worse, if such was pointed out in a client meeting, risk losing his job ("Aherrmmmdear Architect, my late father wanted that detail put on our building"). Fortunately, the ARB, perhaps borne out of years of experience seeing young and ambitious architects falling flat and humbled on their drawing boards, their bright careers cut short by hubris, included (Standards 12 and 12.4) subtle but firm warnings about the need to "deal with disputes or complaintspromptly and appropriately" and that at every stage, these complaints "be handled courteously, sympathetically" It even provides a recommended time scale to act on them. These standards were recommended not only in matters related to dealings with clients, engineers, and workers, but also in the matter of complaints and observations about fellow architects. Never Too Late Architecture is not only about putting up structures but, more importantly, managing the human relationships that make such structures possible. How an architect masters the art of communication will determine how successful the architect will be in the practice of the art and science of architecture. Every day must be a learning experience. As a building is planned one line at a time, and then constructed one floor on top of another, so must an architect learn and hone the communication skills needed for the practice and its management. A successful and rewarding architectural career depends on it. Reference List Architects Registration Board (1997). Architects Act of 1997. London: ARB. Architects Registration Board (2006). ARB Website. Retrieved 21 August 2006, from: www.arb.org.uk Collins English Dictionary (1991). "Architect". Glasgow: HarperCollins. Drucker, P.F. (1997). Managing in a time of great change. London: Butterworth-Heinemann. Hobsons (2006). Architects. Retrieved 20 August 2006, from: http://www.get.hobsons.co.uk/advice/build_jobroles#architects McCloskey, D. (1993). The neglected economics of talk. Planning for Higher Education, 22, 11-16. Royal Institute of British Architects (2005). Code of professional conduct: January 2005. London: RIBA. Simfonec (2004). "Entrepreneurs five times more likely to suffer from dyslexia." Simfonec News and Events, 27 August 2006. Retrieved 24 August 2006, from: http://www.simfonec.co.uk/newsandevents.html#entrepreneurs Read More