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The inefficiencies inherent in the process of design and construction are necessitating a shift to greater multidisciplinary collaboration and information sharing among project team members This is an exciting time to practice architecture. Architects and engineers seem to be able to design and construct almost anything they can imagine, and the data they use enables these buildings to be well managed by their owners. Architects, consultants, and owners are also working together more closely than ever. Integrated practice (IP) is the term that is being assigned to this collaborative process. IP is a meaningful response to the ongoing marketplace mandate
The inefficiencies inherent in the process of design and construction are necessitating a shift to greater multidisciplinary collaboration and information sharing among project team members Contract documents Integrated practice will drive changes to contracts in order to facilitate working in teams, sharing information, and fairly allocating liability risk, compensation, and responsibility. Changes will most likely occur incrementally with “the continued growth of design-build, tweaked conventional contracts, and increased experimentation with transformational methods like ‘project alliancing,’ ” according to Cambridge, Massachusetts, attorney Chris Noble, of Noble & Wickersham. In this transition period, Noble believes that “there will be increased use of
The inefficiencies inherent in the process of design and construction are necessitating a shift to greater multidisciplinary collaboration and information sharing among project team members Implications for architectural education Many academic programs still produce students who expect they will spend their careers working as heroic, solitary designers. But integrated practice is sure to stimulate a rethinking of that notion. Pedagogy must focus on teaching not only how to design and detail, but also how to engage with and lead others, and how to collaborate with the professionals they are likely to work with later. Renee Cheng, AIA, associate professor and
The inefficiencies inherent in the process of design and construction are necessitating a shift to greater multidisciplinary collaboration and information sharing among project team members Will using integrated practice challenge intellectual property norms? One question on many minds is whether the advent of integrated practice, with building information modeling as a primary tool for facilitating it, will change customs regarding copyright of information and intellectual property. In other words, who owns the data? According to Volker Mueller, Assoc. AIA, design technology manager at NBBJ, “Authorship of BIM is analogous to authorship of other construction documents. Every discipline authors their scope
Freelancers and firm culture No architect would say that avoiding hassles from the IRS over who’s an employee and who’s not will make them sharper at their craft. But whether your firm decides its priority is to train and retain or to run lean and mean says a lot about a firm’s culture internally, as well as what strengths it may offer its clients. Many architects say that leaving employment terms loose can lead to excessively casual attitudes about the quality of the work, since freelancers may not have the same level of commitment that employees do. Tim Love, AIA,
Architecture firms may need to lure extra hands for all sorts of reasons. One might be to staff up for a sweet opportunity that’s too good to pass up, but is just a bit beyond the capacity of the office. Another might be to get the benefits of a specialist whose skills are perfect for a current project but might or might not be needed in the future. Those sorts of situations always present principals with a dilemma: do you hire new staff permanently or expand temporarily using hired guns? At first glance it appears that if the good times
The just-released AIA firm survey, The Business of Architecture, is essential reading for the profession’s observers because it is the most complete benchmarking of trends such as firm size, economy, project delivery methods, and many other practice concerns.
Small- and medium-size firms (49 or fewer employees) that are nimble and can leverage technology will survive and prosper, and may even be competitive with their larger counterparts, yet many are hesitant to make the investment in technology needed to improve productivity and performance.
An expected trend regarding project delivery, noted by Mark Zweig, founder of the AEC management consulting firm ZweigWhite, is that even though traditional design-bid-build is still the most dominant method—accounting for 60 percent of firm billings—it is slowly being superceded by other methods.
If your firm isn’t called Gehry Partners, or Herzog & de Meuron, you probably believe in the importance of having a Web site that offers viewers an abundance of information about your company’s projects and services. Even though the American Institute of Architects’ newly published Firm Survey says that repeat business brings over half of the new work to architecture firms, it can only help to show the world who you are and what you do. Alice Kimm, AIA, says the purpose of John Friedman Alice Kimm’s site (jfak.net) is “to recruit the right kind of client.” 64North (64north.com) designed
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