Hey, Eric here with Thirty by Forty Design
Workshop, today I'm doing a Q&A.
I asked you guys in my YouTube feed to submit
your questions, so if you're not subscribed
make sure you subscribe and hit that notification
bell that way next time when I ask in the
feed if people have questions to submit, you
can submit yours.
Another good spot to do that is on Instagram
I definitely read all my DMs, I'm not always
able to respond to everybody - I do get quite
a few - but that's a great place to submit
questions too.
There are two that are the most popular and
the most up voted, I'm gonna answer those
with separate videos.
One is by Luis Delgado who wants to see the
process or script that guides and explains
the concept and design to a client for the
first time, and also the sketches models or
maybe materials that I use.
So, I'll be making a video on that one, and
then the second one is submitted by Matt Moore
who asked, “I'd love to see something that
talks more about your work-life balance and
how your life experiences influence your design
choices and even how your design choices affect
your quality of life I enjoy the more personal
experiences that you share about these rather
than specific design challenges.”
so there seems to be some demand for this
so I'm gonna do kind of a vlog style I've
been meaning to do this for a while so stay
tuned for that.
Okay, from YouTube Nick Cronin asks, “What
was your first project when you went out on
your own and what's something you do differently
if you were doing it again today?”
So, when I first went on my own I actually
have three projects.
I think it's difficult just to start with
one project by itself because invariably you'll
work through the design problem, then send
it to the client and you'll have an interval
where they're reacting to that design and
you'll have nothing to do if you don't have
more than one project.
So I had three, one was a commercial project,
it was a mixed-use commercial project and
then I had two residential projects.
What I learned quickly here was that the commercial
project was far less interesting to me because
I spent a lot less time doing design work.
I spent more time dealing with regulatory
agencies and pulling permits and dealing with
local town and state officials.
I realized that if I built a brand around
doing this kind of work that I would be spending
way more time doing the sort of paperwork
pushing than I would be doing design.
The residential projects by contrast were
one-on-one client engagements, cool sites,
interesting materials, interesting people.
And so, I knew very quickly that this fit
my idea of what I wanted to be doing as an
architect.
Having this range is also helpful because
it helps you define what you like doing and
what you don't like doing.
So I wish I had had this realization at the
time but now I have the perspective to look
back and say, you know, we are all given a
chunk of time during our day and if you take
this time and you subdivide it into three
projects it's exponentially more work for
you as the architect.
It means you're you have shorter time scales
for each one of those projects which means
you need to court new clients all the time
you constantly need to be feeding new work
into the business.
You have three site plans to draw, three electrical
plans to draw, three permits to pull, three
clients to coordinate and engage with, three
contractors to meet with and do site visits.
And so rather than it just being three times
the amount of work it's actually exponentially
more work.
What I would do differently is be more selective
with the clients that I chose.
I would choose projects that had longer timescales
and larger budgets and that provides you the
white space - rather than having to court
new clients all the time and constantly seeking
out new work - it gives you the white space
to really be thoughtful and considerate of
the client that you're working with.
It increases the quality of work - I've found
- and it just results in an overall happier
life.
So that's what I would recommend if you could
possibly do it.
I realize starting out you're gonna need a
certain base level of work but as you get
some experience and some confidence try and
get used to saying no more than you're saying
yes, and I'll link up a video either in the
description or the cards above here that I
did on saying no and how I say no and the
benefits of doing that.
Okay from YouTube Brian Benham says, “How
do you determine if a client is right for
you and once you've determined they're a good
fit what's next?
What are the first initial conversations like?”
Okay so it's your job as the architect to
find the right fit between the clients that
are seeking to work with you and your brand.
So you want to ask some very pointed questions
upfront before you ever agree to meet with
them in person or on a building site.
So I want you to think of the questions that
would make you say yes or no to working with
somebody.
What are those specific questions for you
- and they could be style, they could be schedule,
they could be budget, they could be any number
of things.
But I think those are some good starting points
to really triage whether this client is a
good fit for you.
Now I made the mistake early on in my business
of saying yes to every single client engagement
that came my way.
And what I know now is that not every client
coming to you and your business and your brand
is going to be the right fit for you and the
same applies to any sort of creative field.
You need to really be strong and determined
about what…what it is that you're building
and the kind of work that you want to do and
it's only fair to the client to ask the kind
of questions that really do triage and weed
out the ones that aren't a good fit for you.
You know you want them to have the best possible
product and you want to fill your portfolio
with work that looks like the kind of work
that you want to be doing now and in the future.
Once you determine the client is a good fit
and you have a face-to-face meeting you're
going to be presenting them with a fee proposal,
getting them to buy in to your design process,
the way that you work.
From that fee proposal and your agreement
then you're going to start developing the
more pointed questions to tease out the information
that you need to begin designing the project
and that's probably going to start with a
client questionnaire that says - you know
- what are the spaces that you're looking
for?
What's the relationship to the site?
All these very detailed list of questions.
From those answers you'll shape the program
and from the program you'll set the budget
and those two need to work together and then
you'll begin designing after all of those
things are in place.
So the initial conversations go from the very
general: are they a good fit?
And then you move through your design process
- your particular process - and get them to
buy into that.
So you're ultimately shaping the project and
the process to fit your own personal brand.
Okay from YouTube Victor Plata wants to know,
“When and how did you find your own architectural
style?”
This is a tricky one because I think our architectural
style is constantly evolving or at least it
should be and I would say my advice to you
is you want to: do what's inside you.
And, what's inside you, is a result of all
the things you've experienced and ingested
in your life.
It's your cultural upbringing, it's your friends,
your mentors, your family, things you've researched,
the buildings you grew up in, it's the art
you like, it's the books you've read, it's
all of these things that feed into - you know
- your unique view of the world.
Now your work is what gives these influences
and all of these things form, that's your
architectural style.
They say the act of creating sort of gathers
its own kind and I think - your work may never
achieve mass appeal - and I think that's fine
and that's actually great.
I feel like if I'm doing work that's genuine
and uniquely me and it comes from my own personal
viewpoint that it's going to attract the kinds
of people that are like me and sort of my
tribe.
And so I think that's great I think every
artist should want that.
Now to start developing your own I think you
want to give yourself the widest diet of things
to consume you know intellectually and this
doesn't mean only architecture, this doesn't
mean other other architects necessarily, it's
sculpture, it's film, it's writing, it's literature,
it's all the things that sort of light you
up inside, it could be graphic design, or
printmaking, whatever it is.
The world is full of all these rich treasures
and I think it's your job to go out there
and experience them and consume them and travel
and just build your lexicon and your reference
library - up here - with all of this great
stuff.
Austin Kleon wrote a great reference text
that if you haven't read I think you should
it's called Steal Like An Artist and in it
he talks about this idea that you don't want
your work to look like the work of your heroes,
you want to learn how your heroes see the
world.
I can't think of a better way of expressing
that idea and thinking about your own architectural
style.
So good luck with it.
Okay another one from YouTube Maria Zegers
is asking, “Is architecture creatively fulfilling
and how hard is it to start being independent?”
Architecture can absolutely be creatively
fulfilling.
What I'll say is with any creative field there's
a natural ebb and flow of creativity there's
creative high points and creative low points.
Doing a door schedule and doing a schematic
design are two very different things creatively.
Schematic design has all this energy balled
up in it you're doing elevations and massing
and sketching plans and things like that and
the door schedule it's sort of a rote task.
Both of these poles are required to realize
architecture in the world you need both of
those things, but they require very different
levels of creativity so I would say if you
are solely seeking creative fulfilment from
architecture there are times when you'll probably
be disappointed with the amount of creative
fulfillment there.
And so what I've tried to do in my practice
is to - to deal with this - is to seek out
other creative inputs, other creative interests
and bring those into my own professional life.
You know I've said this before, the life of
an architect is a life of design.
There are plenty of other places that you
can draw upon to refuel your creative stores.
Now this second part of your question, how
hard is it to become independent, sort of
feeds into this and that's kind of the exciting
part here.
I think it's never been easier to be…to
be independent today in the world.
One of the ways you can do this is by having
a side hustle and a side hustle is something
that just creatively refuels you it's something
that's yours and yours alone and you can decide
what constraints you put on it.
What I found is having a side hustle, something
that isn't subject to the scrutiny of others
looking at it, or judging it, or subject to
earning income for you or anything else, it
allows you to pursue something without all
of these external pressures on it.
Now you may decide at some point with your
side hustle that the work is so good that
you can no longer sort of keep it a secret
and you need to bring it out into the open,
pull it out of the closet and share it with
everybody else.
And that's the point at which the side hustle
becomes the sort of main gig and maybe that's
the point at which you start earning money
from it.
There are some paradoxes with that, you know,
if you take the side hustle and make it the
main gig you no longer have a side hustle.
So there are things you need to come to terms
with, but it can be creatively fulfilling
in a way that you may never have expected.
So I can say a side hustle of mine was the
YouTube channel it's been creatively fulfilling
in some really unexpected ways.
So find your side hustle double down on that.
Appreciate the question and good luck with
it.
Alexander from Instagram asks, “Would you
consider doing videos that touch further on
in the design process such as details and
construction documents?”
Absolutely I will and I plan to.
I think we suffer a little bit from this narrative
fallacy as a result of HGTV and these extreme
makeover shows where they present the design
and construction to fit within a 20 or 30
minute episode and you know the reality of
the design process - I want to bring you guys
into that show you what I'm working on show
you what's on my desk - but the reality is
design it's pretty long it's drawn-out.
You know if I'm working on a project for six
to eight months in design and then it's - you
know – twelve, sixteen, twenty-four months
in construction it can be a long time span
between when I'm drawing a detail on my desk
and when it's actually being realized in the
field.
And so those disconnects are sometimes hard
to resolve in a video in a short video eight
or ten minute video.
So I'm working on ways to to make those connections
but I'm one guy and I don't have very many
projects that I'm working on simultaneously
as I spoke about earlier in this video, what
that means is you know there are larger time
gaps between what I'm designing and what's
actually being constructed.
So I appreciate your patience but I am definitely
trying to find ways to make that happen.
Edgar Zepeda from YouTube asks, “Any tips
or general guidelines for construction cost
estimates?”
So I've done a video on this in the past I'll
link it up here in the cards.
My general perspective on construction cost
estimates is I don't want to take responsibility
as an architect for things that I don't control.
Construction is one of the things that I don't
control.
I don't control a contractor's labor force,
I don't control their material suppliers,
and I certainly don't control their schedule.
All of those things can greatly impact the
cost of a project.
So my approach to this is to treat it as a
big collaboration.
From the very outset of a project I want to
have a contractor involved in the schematic
design phase working with my client and myself
and we develop a sort of team approach.
So whatever we're coming up with in the schematic
design phase I want the contractor’s input
in and feedback on what the contractor thinks
that project is going to cost based on the
information that I'm giving him.
And if we know that we have a thousand square-foot
house and it costs a million dollars and the
client’s budget is only $500,000 at that
point we need to cut the size of the house
in half basically.
So there's some decisions that need to be
made right up front so that the budget is
always in alignment with the design as it
progresses as we move through the different
phases of design into design development and
construction documents we're always soliciting
feedback from the contractor they're always
filling in the gaps of our knowledge here
as we're refining the design and giving them
more information they're giving us more information
and at every step of the way we can react
to the most current information that we have
based on the current design.
A lot of times the approach that's taken is
a design is developed and generated between
a an owner and an architect and it's progressed
through the bid document phase and it's sent
out to bid and the bids come back two three
or four times what the clients budget is and
that is the worst position you can possibly
be in because then the client has paid the
architect for a design that they'll never
be able to realize that they can't afford.
So my process is to bring in collaborators
from the beginning work on the budget from
the very outset and every party is responsible
for that moving forward.
By the time you get to the construction document
phase the owner ideally knows what it costs
to build the building the contractor knows
the details and the systems and all the materials
that are involved in it and the architect
knows that the design that we've all been
working together is actually going to be realized
in the world.
And that's one of the most important things
you can do as an architect.
Okay the next two are related so I'll address
them both together, “What was the career
path that brought you to the comfort and freedom
you have now?”
And, “What point should I start my own studio?
Is it best to practice first at a firm and
for how long?”
Architecture is a complex field an internship
is actually required.
It's complex enough where you need to learn
how to put a building together how to put
a set of drawings together and all the intricacies
of practice from someone who's done it before.
So yes I think the short answer is you need
to start by working for somebody else.
Now it's important to be selective in who
you work for.
Graduating school you may not know exactly
the kinds of projects you want to work on
or who you want to work for and so if that's
you, you need to choose a range.
You need to work for a large firm, a small
firm and probably a medium firm, medium-sized
firm.
And you'll probably pretty quickly realize
which firm culture you fit into, which scale
of projects you like working with, whether
or not you want client involvement or you
want to be a lead designer or you want to
be in the field.
All those things are set and determined by
the type of firm that you go to work for.
Once you know what that is then you need to
be highly selective in the kind of firm that
you choose to continue working for.
So I would choose that firm based on the kind
of work that that firm is doing and the kind
of work that you want in your portfolio.
So let's say for example you want to be a
residential architect like me, seek out the
kind of firm that's doing precisely the kind
of work that you want to be doing in the future
that way as you're going to practice with
that firm you're learning how they court new
clients, what budgets are like, what all the
contacts are, who the contractors are in your
area that are working on these kinds of projects,
and then as you're working with this firm
you're building a portfolio of – hopefully
- award-winning work that you can then, when
you decide it's time to go out on your own
and build your own thing, you now have a portfolio
stacked full of award-winning work, you have
the contacts in your local network of all
the people who are doing those projects, you
know how the buildings go together and you
can confidently go to a new client and say,
“Look this is the kind of work that I've
done in the past and this is the kind of work
that I'm capable of doing and you and I can
partner on this” and they can feel confident
that they can hire you to execute their project.
So yes absolutely you need to go work for
somebody else, do that very strategically
to build a portfolio of work that looks like
the kind of work you want to be doing in the
future.
It's up to you to decide how long you're comfortable
staying in that zone of working for somebody
else and building someone else's business
and when it's time for you to go out on your
own and pursue your own thing.
Sagarika Sengupta asks, “Any tips on trying
to balance architectural competitions with
academics, and how and when should you start
developing your portfolio?”
Okay develop your portfolio now and I suggest
you do that using a website that's your piece
of online real estate.
You really need to start developing that now.
Put only your best work on there and as your
work gets better take that work that's on
your website and move in the new work.
You want to keep cycling that with the freshest
work, the best work and then you can use that
as you're applying for jobs.
People who send me PDF portfolios by email
are immediately deleted.
I can't accept those they're just they're
too big, they're too unwieldy.
If I ever want to interview someone the first
place I'm going to check is their website.
If they don't have a website it's in this
day and age it's a real issue in terms of
employment and your employability.
So you need to get on that right away.
Okay now, in terms of balancing architectural
competitions and your academic work, it's
good practice for your professional life as
an architect.
There's a continuum of workflow that happens
in an architecture office there's always new
clients coming into the business, there is
schematic design happening in the business,
you're working through the design process,
there's construction happening in the business,
there are projects being built in the world
and then you are constantly seeking new clients,
so that this continuum repeats itself and
it requires a lot of multitasking all of these
things are happening simultaneously so it's
a lot of things to, to juggle and doing architecture
competitions and academics is just sort of
a small slice of what that's like.
So you'll need to be doing a lot more things
at once but this is a good an entree for that.
It'll force you to be time efficient with
your academic work it'll force you to be time
efficient with your competition work and also
you know competitions are just a great source
of inspiration even for a practicing architect
like me.
You know it's an influx of new ideas and new
thinking it sort of takes you out of your
comfort zone.
As a student it can be a launching point for
your entire career if you look at someone
like Maya Lin she was an architecture student
when she did the Vietnam War Memorial competition
and won that.
So many opportunities there I think it's great
that you're doing the two side-by-side they
can feed each other symbiotically just as
competitions can feed an established practice
with new intellectual ideas and exposure.
So absolutely I think it's a great thing that
you're doing it.
If you're struggling with how to fit that
into a schedule I have video on time management
which I'll link up here you can watch that
and also I would just recommend you know sleeping
less and doing more.
There's that that stair in that Tom Kundig
house I think it's called The Brain and it
says there'll be time for sleep when I'm six
feet under.
And it's sort of repeated up the stairs I
just love that as a mantra to repeat to yourself.
You can get by with very little sleep and
you know if you're really engaged and lit
up by the work you're doing you don't need
much sleep.
And the last question, Aayush asks, “What's
the story behind the name 30 by 40 Design
Workshop?”
And there is a story I'm gonna send you to
my blog it's the very first blog post I ever
did as a professional on my website and it's…it's
interesting to read not only because it gives
some of the backstory to my architectural
style and the inspiration of my design aesthetic
but also because it's a snapshot of me - you
know - sort of the moment I was starting my
business and I think you can read some of
the insecurities that I had back then in that
blog post and some of the hope and I can say
looking back on it that it's…it's nice to
have that snapshot it's nice to be able to
see where you've been in much the same way
that you know my side hustle of making videos
if I go back and look at the very first videos
that I made they’re…they're pretty horrible
and it's kind of nice too to be able to have
that perspective.
If you've built a portfolio before and you
go back and look at some of the first pages
in your portfolio your, your early, early
work, it's probably very similar for you.
Nonetheless there's a story there and I hope
you go check it out.
I do appreciate all these questions you guys
are asking I want to be able to answer all
of them I'm not always able to there's just
too many at this point the ones that I think
I can really contribute to I will always try
and do that.
I want to close out the video by asking you
to subscribe there are nearly 75% of you who
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and thanks so much for all your support.
Cheers my friends, see you next time.
