Hi
I always imagined an architect’s daily working life to be rather lonely, rather than sociable.Do architects these days work side by side or in separate rooms/cubicles in architect firms?Architecture seems to involve a demanding schedule and fierce concentration. Engineers on the other hand seem to have more sociable jobs. Maybe I’m wrong on these points. What are the common misconceptions of architects and engineers and what is the reality? I look forward to your feedback.
I think it depends on the architect and the firm they work for. I have worked with architects in the past and from just sitting in the waiting area waiting for a meeting I would see them running around and talking with designers, structural engineers, project managers etc. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a time when they are locked up in their office doing their own work, but I got the sense it’s much more collaborative than you might think. Mind you this is one lonely data point.
Thanks dolphinboy. I did speak with an architecture graduate. Mind you, it wasn’t her career, but she did say that it was much more collaborative than many people imagine. My point is that there it does demand focus, so architects are surely focused for long periods of time on their own, even if they are working in close proximity to one another. It would be interesting to get an idea of the the office atmosphere.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-work-at-an-architecture-firm
"Most of the time you’re working with a group of people, including employees in house, consultants and contractors all working together to construct a building that will be around for years. Sometimes you’re only working on a project for a few weeks and sometimes for a few years. Every one of the projects is different, and every one if them is challenging in their own way. It’s a very rewarding experience. "
Would the environment described in this video be typical?
I can only testify observationally as well. I fix office machines for my living, and I have been in many architectural offices. All the ones I have been in, were large open spaces, with lots of people working together.
On the other hand, everything in business is evolving, and the internet is allowing more and more businesses to save the tremendous cost of unified office spaces, and have everyone work from home, with the internet allowing them to have nearly the same coordination as an office would.
I don’t think you can generalize. I know a handful of architects and their working lives are very different. Steve is a partner in his firm, and spends a huge amount of time working on proposals, but also traveling to universities (most of their work is for universities) all over the US and schmoozing, reviewing, selling, negotiating, or arguing. He manages 2-3 projects at a time, usually in different phases of their lifecycle. On weekends he often brings his work home with him and works on proposals, getting new business for the firm all the time.
Shanon works on a specific type of construction project, doing the same thing at different locations. The jobs are few and fairly far between, but she’s involved in them for extended periods of time. Her work is more solitary, doing a particular piece of the project. She works with her team more than with the clients, but they do travel to the job site during construction multiple times.
I don’t see telecommuting being as big in architecture as in other careers. Our partners and a couple of regularly traveling employees have laptops for remote access and presentations, but laptops suck for AutoCAD because of the small screen and lesser horsepower. If working from home with extra monitors plugged in it’s better, but that’s only part of the equation. Home offices don’t have as much space for large drawings to be laid out, and they certainly don’t have large-format plotters. Also not everybody can have all the necessary code books and reference guides, even online. Designing requires a decent amount of space for sketching and overlays, and there’s always “hey what do you think of this” design questions, as well as a lot of code-related questions that people bounce off each other even if they’re not working on the same project.
I always figured engineering was more of a “hunkered down in your own office” kind of career, crunching away at calculations and looking up things in the steel design manual and Simpson catalog. I’ve never worked at an engineer’s office though. I have worked at many architecture firms, from 6 employees to 200+ and at least at the ones I worked at, they were all more or less open collaborative offices. Some were more hierarchical with principals having their own secluded offices, while the project managers had their own niche around the perimeter of an open studio/cubicle area. Others have been entirely open studios. Generally the younger you are the more time you spend at your desk drafting, and as you get more experienced you go on more jobsite visits, go to more meetings, and do more proposals and marketing stuff, but no one is an island. Interior designers see a lot more product reps but do fewer site visits and have a bit different relationship between the team and the client. I could go on and on.
Thanks jakucyk for that inside perspective. Very helpful. Thank you all.
Only for pretty small things. The engineering departments of my clients who had one were hundreds of people; those engineers I know who work on their own tend to do either specific parts of a larger project, or tiny projects. An agricultural engineer may be able to design a small irrigation project on his own, but it has to be small. Nobody would design a road trefoil, a bridge or an airplane motor on his own.
And that’s on the design end of things: a process engineer or a maintenance engineer don’t usually get to hunker down very much (only when it’s Reports Time, and they usually hate it).
Former structural engineer here. I worked for an architectural/engineering firm for about 3 years, then for a structural engineering firm for about 7 years. I worked with a lot of architects over that span.
I would say in general the architects tend to be more social. Both architectural and engineering offices tend to have open-floor plans to encourage collaboration. Technical architects in particular have to be pretty social because they are the ones coordinating between all of the different disciplines: structural, mechanical, civil, electrical, landscaping, etc. I didn’t deal as much with the design architects but I believe there’s a lot of collaboration amongst the team members to get feedback on the design.
As an structural engineer, it depends on how big the project is. If it is big, and there are a lot of engineering team members, it will be more social. If it is small you are pretty much working by yourself. Personally I would much rather be working alone on the structural drawings and calcs than at a meeting, but I know a lot of engineers who feel the opposite.
It can also depend on your seniority and experience. I worked with a number of A&E firms for several years. Junior architects admitted to me that when you’re at the bottom of the pecking order in a larger firm, you can get stuck doing window and door details for a couple of years before being allowed to do anything more challenging. The firms would eventually let the junior people be project managers for smaller jobs to get their feet wet. Dealing with contractors is not for the weak-willed.
Relative of mine has her own architectural business. She is chief cook and bottle-washer. Home office, and during the day she is the only one home. Dedicated office space, but not huge.
The thing is that architects tend to specialise. As noted above, a firm might basically only do university buildings. Some might only do hospitals. Some do smaller municipal buildings. There is a lot of domain experience in any area that isn’t obvious from the outside. The regulations are different, the client expectations are different, and there are a whole raft of little things that make the difference from a generic job to a well done job.
My relative does houses and home renovations. She has worked in the past for very large architectural firms - such as ones that do city office blocks, and they have a floor full of domain experts, and do a lot of stuff in-house. There are also lots of small architectural firms that have a few architects, a few draughtsmen and maybe an engineer on staff, and they also specialise. For houses there is not the need for such, and she can usually handle the job end to end. If there is a need for engineering consulting, she brings an engineer in, but it will typically be pretty simple. But that is only the grunt work of the design process. Client consultation, and supervision of the building process mean getting out of the office.*
Typically you’ll have 3 sons from a previous marriage and 3 step daughters from your new wife. Watch out for the eldest son - he’s too irresponsible to be trusted with blueprints.
And you can only afford a 3 bedroom house but yet you have a full time live in maid 