I had argued previously that the production aspect of architecture has been outsourced to contractors with the rise of the Design-and-Build contracts. This has been congruent with a global economic trend where the economy has been abstracted, production has been outsourced and the focus has shifted from production to services.
Architects have failed to take heed of these changes and instead of specialising and embracing the service aspect of their profession like almost all other white-collar professionals, they have consciously neglected it and frantically attempted to hang on to production as it disappeared right in front of their eyes.
I believe that this may explain the lamentable status of the architectural profession that we are blighted with today. Architects created this vicious circle where they forsake design to be contractors and end up being neither. They are powerless and with hardly any influence or clout in the property sector and the construction process. This dynamic that has turned a once profession of designers into a class of bureaucrats. So much time is wasted on non-productive endeavours and so much fee is squandered on pointless resource.
Architects need to accept division of labour. They key word here is “sub-contractor design”. There is absolutely no point in detailing drylining to the nth degree. There is no glory in obsessing over service penetrations through blockwork and there is no reward in getting consumed by waterproofing. Architects are experts at doubling up on work undertaken by trade specialists, and whilst an understanding is crucial for architects to be able to streamline and manage such processes, undertaking redundant work belies logic. Some architects, at early stages, assign resources to detail off-the-shelf products like fixings to drylining ceilings. Others try to submit Stage 4 packages at Stage 2. This is a futile and costly process.
Engineers have created a plausible model of assigning responsibility, yet architects scoff at them. I believe architects need to emulate the engineers’ modus operandi.
Architects need to be conscious that time and fees are finite and limited. This entails prioritising and letting go of some items. I emphatically believe that research into technology, trends, finishes and benchmarks is more useful than trying to outdo trade specialists. I also believe meticulous detailing of architectural elements and incorporating structure and services into the design, nay using engineering disciplines as design tools, is far more beneficial than delving into myriad options for the sake of it. A solid set of ERs where the design is unassailable is far more a propos than waterproofing details. Architects need to manage client expectations and lay out what deliverables they can commit to, whilst being vigilant about it. Again, engineers do a commendable job. If at first instance, increasing fees is not possible then architects need to maximise their profit margins whilst focusing their limited resources on the matters that only they can do.
Architects need rely more on technicians like engineers do. Yes, this may be blasphemous in certain professional circles, but architects need to outsource production even more. What is needed are fewer architects and more technicians and trade contractors. Fewer people in the profession follows the dictum of supply and demand. Hopefully with time, this leads to higher fees.
Architects need to realise that their remit is design and creativity. They need to accept to relinquish some responsibilities to excel at the core of their profession: innovation. Instead, the profession obliterates talent and promotes bureaucracy. This is a suicidal approach for the profession because with the advent of AI, bureaucrats are the first people against the wall. AI, however, cannot supersede creativity. Architects need to let go of production per se and renegotiate the terms to manage production whilst streamlining the design and construction processes. They need to focus on making themselves indispensable. What is needed is for architects to engage in manufacturing collective taste. Taste as far as society as a whole is engaged is manufactured by designers, agents, clients and trend setters. Architects need to integrate themselves into this process. I will publish an article on manufacturing taste in the future.
Over the last 40 years, architects have rendered themselves less useful and lower in the pecking order by refusing to focus on services and failing to specialise. There is now a graver threat with the rise of AI that architects will become outright redundant if they choose to be bureaucrats.
But this is OK. Who needs more influence or even job satisfaction when one has blockwork packages?
For now.
Probably.