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However, in today’s world focused on technology we sometimes forget how such simple tools as pen and paper can help us brainstorm, develop and communicate ideas, quickly iterate and design, solve a problem, or simply understand a perceived object or our own thoughts. To help architects and designers David Drazil of Sketch like an Architect has put together his best practices on the basics of architectural sketching 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Basics of Architectural Sketching

The Sketch Like an Architect book guides you through a 6-step process. It beginns with the very basics of making straight lines and progresses to gradually more complex compositions of free hand perspectives. As opposed to most books this one is not just for reading. The book is filled with practical tips and tutorials.

The Sketch like an Architect book provides you with a structured road map to improve your sketching skills. You will get 40+ important and to-the-point tips & tricks and 15 sketching worksheets for practicing. In addition, your will find countless examples of finished sketches explaining key techniques and concepts.

• Get the Sketch like an Architect book on Amazon – Paperback (Affiliate Link*)

Or if you prefer the digital version of the book you can download it here:

• Digital version of the Sketch like an Architect book (Affiliate Link*)

In addition, you can also learn more about the book in the video below. And also check out our Archipreneur Insights interview with David here.

Here is what some reader say about the book:

“I liked the way David structured his book in teaching you how to sketch everything from people to perspective. His step-by-step process is easy to follow and simple to learn from. I love this valuable resource!” – Shannin Williams, Interior Designer & Architectural Illustrator

“Thank you for your work and the ‘Sketch Like an Architect’ book. I’m a landscape architecture student with no drawing background, and your instruction has really helped me come into my own. I regularly refer you to my classmates!” – Kimberly Ferrara, Landscape Architecture Student

“I think David’s book ‘Sketch Like an Architect’ is one of the best tutorials for everyone who likes drawing! Following your exercise, I feel like for the first time I am able to draw something not bad at all. Thank you so much for your amazing work!” – Francesco Chietera, Civil Engineer

About the Author:

David Drazil is a young architect who loves to sketch. He’s committed to helping other architects, designers, and hobby sketchers to understand, develop, and communicate their ideas better by sharing his knowledge and tips on architectural sketching.

During his architectural studies, both in the Czech Republic and Denmark, he found his passion in the visual presentation of architecture. Namely architectural sketching, visualisations, animation, and virtual reality.

As a trained architect (Master of Science in Architecture and Design), David gained international experience working as an architect for KHR Architects or Danielsen Architecture in Copenhagen, Denmark.

David shares freebies and educational resources on architectural sketching. He runs the website SketchLikeAnArchitect.com. In addition, he runs a successful Instagram page where he built an engaged community of more than 130k fans. Furthermore, David collaborates as a featured artist with sketching apps on iPad called Morpholio and ShadowDraw.

*Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

The post Sketch Like an Architect: Step-by-Step from Lines to Perspective appeared first on Archipreneur.

From the press release: Part vox populi, through conversations with more than 40 industry experts, and part confessions of a dual agent, MANAGING DESIGN (June 5, 2019; Wiley) offers a proven framework of Project Design Controls for achieving project balance.

Through reflective case studies and commentary, architect and author Michael Alan LeFevre, FAIA Emeritus, NCARB, LEED AP, shares his best practices in successful, high-visibility design projects over a half century of boundary-breaking work as designer and design manager for one of the country’s best construction management firms.

Through insightful, diverse perspectives, notions of empathy, inclusion, teamwork, technology, and new value propositions are shared in this timely, self-help book for all who design, build and collaborate. Architects, engineers, owners, contractors, manufacturers, students and teachers will benefit from this pulse of the profession – to find their path forward.

Managing Design unearths and gives direction to longstanding and emerging industry questions:

• Why can’t designers come to grips with the basic constructs of managing schedules and budgets?
• How can we understand and work with one another for better collaboration in a contentious industry?
• Why does the “lone design genius” myth persist in an era of collaborative practice?
• How must educational institutions change to produce new-age collaborative practitioners?
• Who is advocating for more diverse, inclusive teams, sustainable buildings and new value propositions?
• Can future practitioners find their place in generalized, specialized, or orchestrating roles?
• Will strategic alliances thrive?
• Does technology hold the answers?
• Who will emerge to manage design teams? Owners? Contractors? Designers themselves?  

MANAGING DESIGN (Affiliate Link*) includes conversations with 40 experts to give readers an overview of current industry issues, with guidance on how to address them. Issues include firm planning and leadership transition; new value propositions; use of research; new educational models and curricula for collaboration vs. lone wolf designers; design conviction; new attitudes and roles (e.g. generalist, specialist, connector/enabler, strategic alliances between owners, architects and contractors); technology solutions and data reuse; process changes; the importance of creating project planning phases to set goals, responsibilities and protocols; inclusion; diversity; empathy; advocacy; and sustainability.

The book explains how to manage these conditions, revealing a proven framework for achieving project balance. In five levels and twenty-five touchpoints readers learn how to organize, plan, structure and prioritize project processes to manage design.

Lastly, readers are given project case studies of five high-visibility projects to illuminate best practices and reflective tips to bring better design scheduling, scope management, value analysis, contractor, trade and manufacturer expertise and collaboration to design and cost estimating processes.

*Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

The post Managing Design: Conversations, Project Controls and Best Practices for Construction Projects appeared first on Archipreneur.

Managing a startup, real estate development firm or architectural practice and being successful at it requires a specific combination of creative and business skills. This marriage of right and left brain thinking is extremely difficult to achieve and usually requires time, experience and the readiness to learn. One needs to obtain basic business skills in order to build relationships with clients, manage employees, work effectively with contractors and consultants and obtain financial stability.

There are many sources from which architecture practitioners and those starting out can learn and acquire knowledge. Numerous blogs, websites and popular books share advice on how to become a more effective entrepreneur, but many of these tend to be forgettable or reiterate the same content. Here we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of essential reading that offers great information and advices applicable to the business of architecture.

The One Thing: The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results

by Gary Keller

“Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re NOT going to do.”

The book centers on the idea of organizing every area of your life around a single important thing per area. It addresses the issue of focusing, figuring out what needs your undivided attention and proceeding to map out a plan on how to get where you want to be. Written by Gary Keller, founder of Keller-Williams Real Estate, the book claims that one doesn’t need a To-Do List but a Success List which focuses on using ones highest leverage activities.

The Real Estate Game: The Intelligent Guide To Decisionmaking And Investment

by William J. Poorvu and Jeffrey L. Cruikshank

“Given all the potential investors in the world, why has this fabulous opportunity fallen into my lap?”

Written by one of the masters in the field of real estate investment and Harvard Business School lecturer, the book offers an insider’s perspective on how to make smart decisions by paying attention to all the variables-people, properties, capital markets and the context. It provides specific information and guides the reader through the key “periods of play”-concept, commitment, development, operation, reward and reinvestment. Specific and written using easy-to-understand terms, The Real Estate Game is a must-read for those interested in real estate.

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

by Eric Ries

“We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.”

This New York Times bestseller draws from the author’s personal experiences as startup builder, employee and founder, as well as his observations of the entrepreneurial world. The author brings to light the reasons why many startups fail, the biggest one being-they are buildings something nobody wants. The book introduces a widely recognized movement that Ries calls “validated learning” about the customer and accentuates the importance of knowing and adjusting to your customers. A core component of Lean Startup methodology is the development of a minimum viable product (MVP), which is followed by subsequent tune-ups.

Real Estate Development: Principles and Process

by Mike E. Miles, Gayle Berens, Mark Eppli

“Though many activities related to development now take place under the corporate or institutional umbrella, the activities themselves still bear a distinctive entrepreneurial stamp.”

The book was written for those new to real estate development and covers each stage of the process, step by step, along with comprehensive case studies that accompany each chapter. It includes material on financing and marketing and explains the basics of conceptualizing ideas to planning, financing, negotiation, construction and asset management.

The Architect as Developer

by John Calvin Portman, Jonathan Barnett

“Architects in the past have tended to concentrate their attention on the building as a static object. I believe dynamics are more important: the dynamics of people, their interaction with spaces and environmental condition.”

Taking a more biographical approach to the subject matter, the authors cover the most important period of John Portman’s career. Readers looking for practical tips on how to become architect/developers might feel let down. Nevertheless, the book offers an insight into the professional ascension of one of the most famous and prolific American architects and real estate developers.

The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts

by Richard Susskind, Daniel Susskind

“Professionals play such a central role in our lives that we can barely imagine different ways of tackling the problems that they sort out for us. But the professions are not immutable.”

This book predicts a future of the labor market in which there will be no need for doctors, teachers, accountants, architects and many other professions. It sees artificial intelligence dramatically changing the way expertise of specialists is utilized and acquired. The authors propose six new models of doing this and raise serious moral and practical questions. Readers interested in the evolution of professions in the new machine age will find The Future of the Professions to be a compelling read.

Open Source Architecture

by Carlo Ratti, Matthew Claudel

“Why not hack your house?”

What this book explores is the notion of the architectural industry as a networked, collaborative model that embraces 21th-century trends such as crowd-sourcing, open access and mass customization instead of a practice dominated by the grand visions of starchitects. It functions as a sort of manifesto and a call to action, but also includes possible practical applications of such a system. It is a provocative read based on the idea that the current definition of architects’ work is outdated.

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure)

by Christopher Alexander

“Individuals have no effective voice in any community of more than 5,000–10,000 persons.”

In this book Alexander focused on discovering the myriad subconscious ways in which architecture influences people and links the findings to vernacular architecture. Although his findings were initially criticized and attacked by many practicing architects in the 1970s, when the book was first published, 20 years later scientists discovered evidence that confirm the underlying principles of the Pattern Language. It isregarded by many as “one of the great books of the century.”

The Art of the Start 2.0

by Guy Kawasaki

“Doing, not learning to do, is the essence of entrepreneurship.”

The book gives practical advice about social media, crowdfunding, cloud computing and other topics relevant to business. It is regarded by many as a standard for learning how to start a company, whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, small-business owner, intrapreneur or not-for-profit leader. It’s one of those books which encourages one to try things out and navigate the perilous waters of starting a company.

Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur

“Focus: Establish a new business model in an old industry” 

For years the business model of architects was trading hours for dollars. Technology and the Internet have brought us millions of possibilities to create and design new business models within old industries. Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow’s ventures.  It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context.

***

It has been proven over and again that, although useful, MBA programs don’t have a monopoly on business knowledge. On the contrary, reading some of the interviews with world-renowned entrepreneurs, the notion of self-education emerges to the very top of the list of key ingredients in success. Reading and hearing about other people’s victories and failures proves to be a great learning tool that helps you hone your professional skills.

Amidst all the daily concerns and challenges, you might think you don’t have enough time for reading, but once you start seeing it as an investment, you’ll be surprised to find your schedule miraculously clearing just enough to fit a couple of hours of alone time with a clever book.

What are you reading at the moment? Which other books would you recommend to aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs?

The post 10 Inspirational Books Every Archipreneur Should Read appeared first on Archipreneur.

The MakeCity Festival recently took place in Berlin. You might remember the article I wrote about it a few weeks ago. While researching some of the events and panels prior to the festival itself, I stumbled upon a very interesting book by Kristin Ring: Selfmade City.

Ring was also deeply involved in the festival’s events because the topic of self-initiated urban development was among the key themes of the festival’s mission. Ever since living and working in Berlin, I have been particularly interested in projects that were developed in the city. Naturally, I bought the book and got very excited about its content. Let me give you a brief overview because I would highly recommend that you read Selfmade City yourself:

Selfmade: Taking Charge Of Urban Developments

The selfmade city approach focuses on architectural projects that have been created through self-initiative – by architects themselves, by builders’ collectives (like co-housing, co-ops, co-working), or by other individuals. These projects give a positive vibe to the city in terms of urban quality, design and sustainability that leave the mediocre solutions that the property market produces far behind.

Ring analyzes this movement in Berlin, which she calls “the city of Urban Pioneers”. Over the last 10 years, spaces were transformed, available gaps in the city’s landscape were occupied and old buildings were engaged with the new program. All this happened between the intersection – or tension – of freedom and need. The motivation for urban pioneers to create these selfmade projects arose from, on the one hand, an absence of alternative solutions and, on the other, a need to create an environment that suited their own creative imagination.

The goal of Selfmade City is to show why it is worth creating alternative developments to produce individual solutions for affordable living and working in the inner city of Berlin. In order to do so, Ring raises issues and further questions about the context of city planning with regard to Germany’s economics and various social communities.

These questions are addressed from a number of perspectives. First, Ring answers them by analyzing 51 projects in detail and presenting their individual profiles and qualities. Second, she interviews players, initiators and experts from the selfmade scene, interlacing their opinions with her thesis throughout the book.

This is only a very brief introduction to her book, which is itself a rich summary of research, opinions and projects, and one that I think members of the archipreneurial community should definitely read themselves. I would now like to show you some of my favorite projects from Berlin’s selfmade scene. Some of them have already been pinned on the Archipreneur Pinterest page. If, after this, you want an in-depth summary of each of these projects, I urge you to get Kristin Ring’s book because you will find further information, such as building costs, the cost of land, the rentable area, and more.

Projects from the Selfmade City

What follows are my three favorite projects from Selfmade City. It was actually a tough decision to choose just three because there are so many good ones out there. I will give you only a very short intro to the three projects to give you just a sense of the creative approaches that went into the alternative nature of the buildings. The three projects I chose where all developed by architects themselves, so they perfectly fit with the Archipreneur concept!

1. Co-housing, Oderberger Straße 56, BAR Architects

This co-housing project combines four apartments, four workspaces, a shared rooftop apartment, roof terrace and an art studio. Additionally, some spaces within the complex are rented out: an apartment on short-term lease, a music room, a café, and a space for commercial activity. The building’s owners curate the program together. The hybrid concepts allow for a certain kind of flexibility that enables the owners to react to any type of financial change.

2. Gallery and Apartment Building, Brunnenstraße 9, Brandlhuber Architects

This highly publicized project was built in a place where an investor’s building had stood untouched for years. The reuse of and extension to the existing building was carried out as an architectural experiment and developed together with the building’s current users. The project gained much praise and set new standards in highly unusual architectural solutions: they built a “temporary” exchangeable façade, flexible spaces, and generated interaction with surrounding urban contexts by way of additional design elements. You can connect your headphones into a socket jack in the street façade. You can hear sounds coming from the six seismic sensors that artist Marc Bain set into the concrete construction of the building.

3. Co-housing, Esmarchstr. 3, Kaden-Klingbeil Architects

This building is the first seven-story apartment block in the world that has been entirely constructed from timber. It is both a pilot project for renewable resource building materials and a structural experiment. Building the external staircase and elevator in concrete ensures a safe fire-escape route and allows for living spaces without interior structural walls, so ensuring maximum flexibility with the building’s design. The wall panels are constructed as stacked timber boards that are installed within the post-and-beam construction.

Conclusion

Selfmade City illustrates a number of creative and alternative development approaches that create long-term value for the city, the neighborhood and the social communities. All qualities and advantages are very well researched and accounted for.

But I also want to give you another reason as to why I am writing about the book on my blog. Many of the projects are self-initiated and developed by architects themselves. They create meaning and value through their creative approach, which ordinary profit-driven real estate investors cannot envision. This process is a creative and entrepreneurial combination, which is brought together in the central concept of archipreneurship.

Co-housing, in that sense, is a great way of developing your first project, as you can start without having equity. I will write a further article on that, as it is an interesting approach and I would like to know from the archipreneur community if this alternative model is also common in other countries.

Nevertheless, what alternative, creative and interesting projects and solutions do you know of that have taken place in your city? I would like to create a list of these benchmark projects from around the world, projects that create value for the city and its community.

Feel free to share cool projects with our own online community in the comment section.

The post Selfmade City: Self-Initiated Urban Living and Architectural Interventions appeared first on Archipreneur.

Eric’s career as an architect initially followed that well-trodden path many architects are familiar with. After being awarded his professional degree, he went on to an internship, before gaining his licensure and finally starting work in an architectural practice. Eric had spent most of his working life doing the “8-5”.

For Eric, the feeling of working for someone else felt like an existence that was at least sustainable and reliable. But he always had a wish to one day have his own practice. Eric believed, however, that the idea was reserved for an indeterminate time far in the future, a time when he knew that there would be plenty of work available, and that he would be ready for it. His decision not to take action was dominated by the part inside of him reserved for the survival and protection of his family and finances.

How to Start an Architectural Practice from Scratch?

In early 2013, shortly before he turned forty, Eric’s employer had to cut salaries across the firm by 20%. The choice was either to work for no pay on Fridays, or to pursue work elsewhere on that day of the week. This was the time Eric finally decided to ignore the protesting from his inner voice telling him to always take the safer option and started researching how to start his own business.

He began searching for a handbook or step-by-step guide that would help him to get started. But the publications he found were either uninspired or completely outdated. Everything he found, including AIA (American Institute of Architects) publications, seemed filled with fusty descriptions that belonged more to the past than the future of architectural entrepreneurship. So he turned instead to online resources, finding blogs, forums and articles on the Internet that were of much more use to him.

Two years on, and Eric successfully started up his design business, 30X40 Design Workshop. He has detailed everything he learned on the way in a new book, Architect + Entrepreneur. Eric says it is the handbook he would have needed when he first opened his own design practice.

Part narrative, part business book, Architect + Entrepreneur is filled with contemporary, relevant, refreshing tips and advice from Eric’s path to building his business. These are tips that worked for him, as he says in the first sentence of his book:

“Opening my business has been the best career decision of my life” – Eric Reinholdt

Using the Lean Start-up Methodology to Create a Design Business

The concept of the book is that the reader adapts the lean start-up methodology to the founding of his or her own design venture and to create a “minimum viable” product – something like a rough sketch of your business – to achieve business success right from the get go.

The lean start-up methodology is what Eric Reinholdt emphasizes the reader uses when starting a design firm because it specifically looks for ways to avoid spending money on things that aren’t important, and focusing instead on what matters.

The handbook encourages that the potential business owner takes successive small wins that, brought together, support the grander vision for the company as a whole. This sentiment can be summarized in Eric’s statement, “think big, start small, and learn fast.”

12 Things you Will Learn from the Book

The book is structured into 12 separate chapters, each packed with useful, hands-on information on how to start a design firm. The following list summarizes the key things you will learn from the book:

• How to foster an entrepreneurial mindset and prepare to start your business while still keeping your day job.
• How to choose the business model that’s right for your design business.
• Tools and ideas to define the brand and “story” of your start-up.
• How to define your USP and set up a marketing strategy for it.
• How to use online Email marketing, social media and SEO to market your business.
• What to have in mind when getting hired by clients and how to communicate effectively with them.
• How to structure your contracts and fees to get paid what you are worth.
• Basic principles of finance and taxes you will need to consider when starting your design firm.
•  The essentials you will need to outfit your dream studio.
• An in-depth breakdown of your total start-up cost.
• How to implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to work the most efficiently.
• What software you should use in order to produce your best work.

Building a business isn’t a single action – it’s a series of small steps. Eric’s book will give you the outline for you to start planning today. The chapters are organized to guide you from your initial idea, to taking action on it. Rather than write a business plan, you’ll be challenged to craft a brand, one that you’ll then start to sell through clever use of new technologies and media.

Have I piqued your curiosity?

About the author

Award-winning architect Eric Reinholdt has built his design practice, 30X40 Design Workshop, using the methodology outlined in this book. He has successfully transitioned from employee to architectural entrepreneur and continues to refine his brand message, help other architects build their independent practices and serve his clients… all from a longhouse he designed himself on Mount Desert Island just off the coast of Maine.

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