Unexperienced architects are full of creativity and energy to apply their current ideas and knowledge, when they leave the Universities and they begin to offer their services on the market. However, when they have their first encounter with clients they usually are confronted with a series of problems that they were not trained for. Read more to find responses to frequent situations.
Junior architect: How much time shall I spend with a client?
The answer is simple and short: as a good professional you should spend a minimum of time with a client. Winston Churchill once said to The Queen:
“To waste time is a grievous thing. If there is one thing I have learned in 52 years of public service, it is no problem too complex, no crisis so grave, that it cannot be satisfactorily resolved within 20 minutes.”
If your client insists in spending more time together then go and play tennis with her/ with him.
Junior architect: How to deal with a client that wants to change the menu after the cooking process has started?
If your client is a very rich and powerful person you need to be careful. She or he might not be used to listen the word ´no´. The client could change the restaurant and she/he will believe that her/his money authorize her/him to do so. Stay calm and you may argue:
“When you fly to the moon, there comes a point of no-return at your mission. This is the point at your journey when flying back is more expensive and more risky than continuing your mission.”
If you are an Architect, you hopefully have set-up an agreement before starting your work that should have a chapter dealing with changes of the brief. During concept stage amendments of the brief are frequent. You maybe need to accept a very little number of changes without being paid.
Junior architect: How to proceed when the client comes back from holiday and she/he wants to change the design, because she/he saw something else somewhere else?
Well, if your client saw something in Italy (and this is just an example) then keep calm and argue that Italy is a wonderful country full of rich architecture, good design and nice food.
At the other hand you should try to avoid this scenario by starting your design after the summer and finishing it before May, even better at Easter. Keep the design process short to avoid all kind of long-term-disaster.
Junior architect: What shall I do if the client does not like my first proposal?
Be thankful for being so honest and frank with you and try to explore the reason.
Normally, when a client says I do not like these drawings after sharing references of your work before you started it means that she/he does not understand your ideas and that you need to improve your representation techniques.
Junior architect: What is to do when the client asks me to make the first proposal “for free”?
Tell her/him that the first proposal usually is the best and the strongest one and that therefore it cannot be done gratis.
You can show another proposal from a former project for free, but you shall not elaborate something without being paid. If she/he insisted tell her/him to come back with her/his first gratis proposal from someone else and when she/he will not like it.
Junior architect: Is there any profession that you know that has parallels to the architect´s profession, that I could study to enhance my performance?
Composing architecture is like Cooking! First of all, you need good ingredients. You need to know what you want to cook (do never change the idea during process!). You will need a good technical equipment, probably someone to assist you, to prepare the food apart from the knowledge about the processes and about the raw materials and you will need to think about a nice presentation of your composition at a nice surface or ground. Give your creation a title and do not overdo it!
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