Essay

Communication is fundamental in getting your design vision executed correctly. You communicate with a multitude of people as an architect: first and foremost with yourself, then with your team, with your client and ultimately with your occupants. And all of this makes up your design system.

At different points in a project you can use communication to leverage different things. Early on, communication can be a great leveraging tool to get your design optimized both aesthetically and functionally. Later on in your design process, communication can really leverage your building’s ability to stay with or under budget. Furthermore, it is communication that also sees to your building being constructed correctly in the field. Needless to say, communication is fundamental to getting your client what they want, building an environment that your occupant loves, and building an architecture that makes you proud.

Scheduling, Renderings and Diagrams, Are They Helping or Hurting You?

What if the very tools and ways you communicate are actually holding you back instead of helping your designs to move ahead? Yes, speed, quality and cost are paramount to most architectural design projects, but what about the way in which you prepare to communicate?

Much time during an architectural design process goes into preparing communication tools. Everything from virtual renderings of different building design options to the way you coordinate with architectural consultants to get aspects like electrical, plumbing or door hardware integrated can take time and effort.

The reason for this is that a design has to be “translated” multiple times and in multiple ways by you, the architect. With each translation, you engage in different conversations, and the result of each is to modify, develop and refine your existing design. Then, you must consolidate all of these conversations into your design, both as they happen and at each phase.

How Would You Improve Your Communication Techniques?

What if you could optimize your “communication methods” during your design process? How would you do it? What would you change? What would you leave the same?

Would putting your particular building project’s information in a “central” repository be better? You could pull information while updating it in real-time. This could do away with multiple instances “translating” your design into different places. Would a technology and design method like this improve or hurt your design process?

I’m interested…how you refine the way you communicate your architecture?

Image Credit: © Alex Osterwalder | Flickr