3D printing – also known as additive manufacturing – turns digital 3D models into solid objects by building them up in layers. The technology was first invented in the 1980s, and has since found its way into our everyday life – and in architecture and interior design. Architecture firm DUS has a vast expertise in architectural 3D printing, and is now applying its expertise to interiors and retail spaces.

“3D printing is an ideal technique to tailor-produce to a space or a brand,” says Inara Nevskaya, head designer at DUS. “We can link a furniture’s functionality with unique form features to create statement pieces, special focal points that frame new experiences for the consumer in the retail landscape.”

The interior design of the new Loft Flagship store in Ginza, Tokyo marks DUS’ entrance to designing 3D printed solutions for private, public and commercial interior spaces. 3D printing allows for unparalleled design explorations: “We had the liberty to design without conventional restraints. For this design, we found great inspiration in Japanese folding and drawing techniques, which resulted in cyclic printed patterns with delicate harmonious changes.”

Because of the digital design and production, the design process was quick and flexible. The one of a kind products where digitally shared and aligned with the client, and then 3D printed in their final form. A great advantage is the high level of sustainable production, as the prints are made with a bio plastic and there is hardly any waste in the process.

Architect Jo Nagasaka of Schemata was responsible for the 3,306 sqm overall interior design of the Loft Flagship store. He asked DUS to come up with ‘novel 3D printed furniture’. Clients Loft acknowledged the importance as a household name warehouse to always find new ways to distinguish themselves and show their products.

DUS responded by developing 6 new furniture typologies that bring out the highlights from each product category. DUS combined 3D prints with new and known materials influenced by traditional techniques, resulting in entirely new functions and tactile features:

All the elements and materials were developed and produced in close collaboration with Aectual, a company specialised in 3D printed interior and building products, which will launch its first line of products during Dutch Design Week 2017.

Location:

Loft Flagship store in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Project Data:

• Architect/Designer: DUS architects
• Design Team: Inara Nevskaya, Hans Vermeulen, Ivo Toplak, Alessandro Giacomelli, Onur Can Tepe, Jay Chenault
• Client: Loft
• Store Size: 3,306 sqm (35,585 SF)

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Among the many communication channels architects use to reach out to potential clients and create a following, the website is arguably the most important one. With a plethora of website-building platforms and attractive themes available to architects, choosing the right one can become a headache. Solutions that strike the balance between beautiful design, streamlined navigation and affordability are rare, and those tailor-made for architects are even rarer.

Common Mistakes Architects Make When Creating A Website

One of the most common mistakes architects make when creating a website is opting for a template that lacks intuitive navigation. We’ve all seen website builder for architects that feature cool animated graphics and stunning visuals, only to see them turn into frustrating experiences after just a few clicks. Visitors end up spending little or no time trying to navigate the maze of information and rarely come back.

Another mistake is having a single URL website that doesn’t allow users to link back to specific projects. This means that bloggers and social media users can’t share specific links in their posts and tweets, but can instead only link to your homepage, thus forcing their audiences to hunt around for relevant information.

Most marketing efforts in architecture rely on great visuals. Firms hire professional photographers to capture images of their built projects and use engaging diagrams and 3D models to represent work in progress. All this effort can go to waste if not properly displayed, organized and optimized for online searches. There are two important aspects concerning images that need to be considered when designing a website. Firstly, it’s useful to have some text to accompany each image in order to make them more searchable. Another reason for adding text is providing useful information to journalists and bloggers who want to talk about your work. Images should also be large enough to be reposted in online magazines and platforms.

A Website Builder Tool From Architects For Architects

A structured and easy-to-use website is the cornerstone of every architect’s business. Its technical, aesthetic and functional aspects will determine traffic, user engagement, and build a firm’s reputation. An ideal architecture website should let the work speak for itself and require minimum effort to maintain.

Monograph website builder for architects is a subscription-based website-building platform for architects that offers beautiful, responsive templates and a free concierge service. Unlike other website-building platforms like WordPress, Monograph Website is designed to be wysiwyg (“what you see is what you get”). While working in WordPress can be cumbersome an require programming knowledge, the Monograph Website backend shows the page you’re editing exactly as it will look when it goes live. The drag-n-drop interface makes it easy to edit content, choose fonts and arrange elements.

One of the best things about Monograph website builder for architects is the fact that it was developed by a team of architects turned entrepreneurs. Robert Yuen, Alex Dixon and Moe Amaya created Dixon & Moe, a boutique software development and design consultancy focused on building applications and digital products in the AEC industries. The agency’s first digital product is Monograph Website, an industry-tailored web platform, website builder and concierge service designed specifically for the architectural profession.

The available templates focus on the visuals and let your portfolio speak for itself. Each is search engine-optimized in order to maximize your web presence. You can simply drag and drop media, arrange, update and reorder content using the streamlined, intuitive editor. You can also monitor traffic and connect Google Analytics. The platform currently offers three gorgeous themes–Avant, Mezzanine and Meridian– with three more to come.

How To Turn A Slow, Difficult To Navigate Website Into An Effective Marketing Tool

Arkansas-based Modus Studio migrated to Monograph website builder for architects when their previous website became too complicated to maintain. The firm, which works across typologies and scales, from sustainable renovations and conversions to urban design and multifamily housing, built their previous website by themselves. The amount of coding necessary to keep things running smoothly eventually forced them to hire professionals. Nevertheless, the site became slower and more difficult to navigate, and turned from a useful marketing tool into a resource- and time-consuming chore.

Switching to Monograph website builder for architects allowed Modus Studio to use their website as an on-the-fly marketing tool to quickly show their work to potential clients. Their current home page has a simple grid layout that showcases a select number of projects which best represent their practice. They use the Avant theme with a clean, banded layout. Each clickable image leads to a project page with an image gallery, project description and essential info like project typology, location, completion date and photo credits.

“Our particular website design using Monograph Website has helped to quickly get the information that matters to potential clients”

“Our particular website design using Monograph website builder for architects has helped to quickly get the information that matters to potential clients,” said the architects. “Our philosophy, design team, projects, contact info…all of it flows to the user rapidly and in an organized manner,” they explained.

Among the many useful features Monograph Website offers, architects at Modus Studio have been most impressed with the streamlined way of adding content to their website and organizing it on the front end. “This reflects well on our level of organization. For example, if one of our designers has a meeting with a potential client or has a presentation to a particular group, we can promptly reorganize the content of the site to fit the theme of the day. Photos, sketches, and diagrams appear quickly and navigating through these in conversation is effortless. Since the website works so well, we’ve been able to turn all of our designers into potential marketers. If projects come up in conversation outside of the office, any one of us can quickly pull out our phone or tablet and get to the project type being discussed.”

“Since we began working with Monograph website builder for architects we have noticed that our target market seems to have a better, more complete understanding of our work.”

Monograph Website provided the firm with a level of consistency in marketing that resulted in considerably higher visitor engagement and stronger online presence. “Since we began working with Monograph Website, we have noticed that our target market seems to have a better, more complete understanding of our work.”

We interviewed Robert Yuen, Co-Founder of Monograph.io and Partner at Dixon & Moe as part of our Archipreneur Insights series. Check it out to learn more about how Yuen and his team mates develop innovative products for the AEC industry.

Also stay tuned for the upcoming Monograph Dashboard. Their second in-house software venture, Monograph Dashboard is a data driven platform designed to help architects and engineers understand and run their businesses more effectively, combining project planning and management with time tracking, forecasting, reporting and a lightweight CRM.

Learn more about creating a high converting website for architects here

The post Monograph: A Website Builder for Architects, by Architects appeared first on Archipreneur.

Graypants is a team of problem solvers bridging the gap between art and design. With studios in Seattle and Amsterdam, they design and create architecture, products, lighting and custom installations around the world.

We recently spoke with Seth Grizzle and Jonathan Junker, founders of Graypants, for an interview for Archipreneur Insights about productizing designs, successfully selling them and establishing their brand.

Now they have just launched their latest product line Chronalights at Euroluce at the Salone del Mobile Milano 2017 and we want to present it to you.

Mimicking the gaseous envelope found around stars, these elegant pendants create a luminous glow through spun brass and acrylic diffusers – light reflecting light.

A series of dish pendants comprises the first release in the Chronalight collection. With a variety of configurations in both horizontal and vertical orientations, dish pendants can be clustered together to make stunning constellation or individually hung to accentuate any space. Thin, yet robust, the debut pendants are available in diameters ranging from 14–43 cm.

All images: © Graypants

The post Presenting Graypants’ Latest Product Line: Chronalights appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Grizzle and Jonathan Junker, founders of Graypants, a company that produces pendant lights made entirely of repurposed corrugated cardboard.

The company’s flagship line Scraplights embodies the team’s interest in repurposing and environmentally responsible design. In 2012, they set up their European office in Amsterdam, from where they started distribution to over forty countries, while the Seattle studio still provides local production for North America and functions as a prototyping shop.

Their portfolio includes public artworks, architectural installations and several lines of lighting, furniture, packaging designs sold throughout the world. Their debut architecture project Garage won the coveted AIA Seattle’s Award of Honor in 2013.

We were curious to learn how these two architects turned their ideas into products and made the transition from “classic” architecture to productizing designs, successfully selling them and establishing a brand.

Enjoy the interview!

What made you decide to found Graypants? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

Graypants was an early dream hatched in our college days and refined through scribbles and sketches on napkins. It was born from the desire to combine our love of making with our fascination in technology. We wanted to find a way to bridge that gap and bring technology back to our fingertips.

The moment that sealed our fateful decision was the recession in 2008. Working as architects, that soon had no more building to design, we had to find another outlet for our creativity and energy. We then decided to take the leap and turn those sketches into something crazy and tangible.

Which of your products was first piece with the potential to sell?

The scraplight series (made from repurposed/recycled cardboard boxes) was our first designs with commercial success.

What do you find the most fulfilling about product creation?

Coming from the world of architecture, which can take several years and up to a lifetime to realize a design, we instantly enjoyed how quickly you could prototype and touch a product design. We both really enjoyed model building in architecture and product design was a way for us to bring design back to our hands using a more tactile process.

How did you establish your brand?

Our brand was established and grew out of a friendship. The name Graypants comes from an inside joke between Jonathan and myself.

We saw creating our brand as another fun design problem to solve and we approached it that way.

We wanted to tackle this creatively and come up with a unique solution that was an extension of who Jon and I both are.

How has your architectural training helped you in the actual running of your business? What specific/transferable skills have proved the most useful?

To be honest, through our architectural training we learned how to be creative problem solvers which became our best asset. We had zero business experience and training. However, we approached business as a design problem and were eager to solve it.

With that said, I would definitely recommend some business training!

I think finding a business mentor was one of the most valuable things we ever did.

We soon realized that we did not have the appropriate knowledge to tackle a lot of the difficult challenges we would face. We were very fortunate to find mentors and colleagues early on that were able to help fill in the gaps that we really needed.

Graypants expanded to Europe in 2012. What was the biggest challenge in the process of developing the business from a two men startup to an international enterprise?

One would think language might be the biggest hurdle… but the fact that the Dutch can speak better English than us made that part pretty easy. All kidding aside, the biggest challenge was probably trusting that we were making the right decisions. It was scary to scale and expand.

Again, we were very fortunate and met some amazing people along our journey that made all of this possible. We learned to trust our dream and our vision. It is easy to second-guess yourself, but trusting your passion and speaking from your heart helped us realize our truth and gave us the courage to keep pushing ahead.

You continue to work as architects. Could you tell us about your project Garage?

When we started Graypants we were not sure if we would practice architecture again… There was something about the profession that we loved so much that we ended up having a struggle with it. We decided that we would only dip our toes back into architecture if we would be able to treat it as art. And that is precisely what the garage became… architecture turned into art and poetry.

The garage was a dream come true process for us. The clients allowed us to approach the space in that way and they also challenged us to design in that way. The garage became more than a space, it became an experience and it became a way for us to capture a memory for the clients in a surprising way that allowed us to transform the space into something magical. We wanted to find a way to honor the mundane things we do on a daily basis, and celebrate them as a tool to change the way we live.

What is next for Graypants? What kind of products will be launched soon?

Lots of exciting things are on our horizon…. perhaps too many to list but we are most exited about a new lighting series that we have just launched in Milan. It is a huge departure for us in material and technology.

Do you have any advice for archipreneurs who are interested in starting their own business?

Never give up, get back up and remember to breathe.

Pursuing your dreams is not a sprint but more of a marathon.

How do you see the future of the architectural profession? In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major opportunities for up and coming developers and architects?

TECHNOLOGY!!!! The profession is changing so quickly due to the rapid expanse in technology. Fabrication, 3D printing and virtual reality are amazing tools that designers now can easily access. I particularly find the virtual design space to be fascinating and can easily see how that will start to rapidly change the way we think, work, design and live.

About Seth Grizzle and Jonathan Junker

Seth Grizzle and Jonathan Junker are founders and partners of Graypants. They both enjoyed a similar upbringing in a small town in Ohio. Here, they lived with the motto “if it’s broke, you fix it”, which functioned as an inspiration for their later professional life.

They studied at Kent State University, and this is the where the first steps to Graypants were set. After submitting their work to Design within Reach in 2008 – and becoming finalists – their work is now well-known and respected. In November of 2013, Graypants was awarded AIA Seattle’s Award of Honor for their debut architecture project, Garage.

Graypants designs are products with stories and feelings, more than just beautiful objects. Seth and Jon are passionate about their work, and believe that this is an essential element that can be seen in their work.

Designs such as the Scraplights series and the Kerflights have made Graypants to what they are today. Nevertheless, new collections – like the Chronalights series – are constantly introduced, of which the latest have been shown at Euroluce 2017.

The post Product Design Made by Architects – How Graypants Built an International Brand appeared first on Archipreneur.

The architectural profession is dominated by service-based businesses. The conventional way in which architects run their studios requires them to reinvent their services with every new client. Specific requests and project briefs are mostly approached with a high level of customization that is time-consuming and inefficient.

In recent times, a new business model has entered the field of architecture, enabling businesses to become more competitive. The concept of productized services proved to be a superior alternative to the established business model, offering a faster turnover rate, more freedom for principals and employees and more room for scaling.

The idea of productized services draws from the field of product development. While services offer greater flexibility and adaptability, products are considered to be standardized and inflexible. In order to reconcile these two contrasting approaches, business owners can appropriate the efficiency and scalability of products with various levels of customization.

The idea behind productizing design services in not to make services more inflexible, but to systematize them in a way that benefits both clients and service providers by creating repeatable, standardized, and automated practices. This can significantly reduce risks for clients and establish trust through consistent delivery of reliable services. By standardizing prices and billing procedures, clients are more likely to perceive architectural design services as value instead of cost. The often intangible qualities of good design are made more transparent and measurable.

Firms looking to offer productized services have different profiles. Some are just starting out, while others are existing businesses with a healthy client base. Productizing existing business models can also be achieved by adding products to your offering which will complement existing services.

It all starts with the customer/client experience and feedback. Explore what new value a productized service would provide to your clients. Define which parts of your business are the easiest and important to standardize. You can use different online tools to automate parts of your processes. A simple pricing system can go a long way in helping you get new clients. Complement this with a consistent look and feel that make specific service elements recognizable.

MIMA Lab introduced productizing very early on. Marta Brandão and Mário Sousa started their business from scratch, offering prefab housing concepts with plan sets that can be ordered online. The structures are delivered together with a folder of drawings that may be necessary for licensing procedures, as well as fact sheets, and guarantees for fixed prices, components and finishes, construction, electrical installations, sewage and water installations, house permits, five-year warranties, and transportation and assembly within Portugal.

They decided to create a business around the idea of affordable, productized architectural designs. As they said in an interview for Archipreneur, software engineer Miguel Matos helped them to create a software that translates all the design information for the factory and simplifies the construction process. The software also allows clients to locate their property on Google Earth and generate an automatic 3D model of their future houses and its position on the site.

Finnish firm Workspace, on the other hand, is a great example of how productizing can be enhanced by focusing on a specific niche. The firm is a leading Nordic consulting and design agency specializing in workplace design and management. Their approach focuses on creating integrative design that combines resource, space management and information communication technology in order to appeal to businesses in need for environmental solutions for new, emerging organizational structures and business models. They create designs that supports various scenarios of use.

In an interview for aec-business.com, Jyrki Yläoutinen, Executive Workplace Consultant at Workspace, said that a large part of their productizing strategy was to focus on finding businesses and not individual clients. They were inspired by the gaming industry in which developers get user feedback very early and fast.

Their services include workplace management and consultation, support for change management and communication in workplace changes, interior design, and architectural design. With their services clients are saving up to 30% in real estate costs and productivity and speed is increased by 5-50%. The resulting business model led to clients fully understanding what they get for their money and the firm now requiring less time for sales and negotiations.

Eric W. Reinholdt took a more gradual approach to productizing his business by introducing products that complimented his existing services. He started his firm, residential design studio 30X40 Design Workshop after gaining extensive experience working for other architects and seeing the consequences of the recession first hand.

His business struggled until he introduced pre-designed plan sets that cut energy consumption. He established a fee structure for schematic and construction packages. Reinholdt added this new product line to his established service-based model, adding customers that didn’t fit the established model as driving force for his passive income model. His website also allows visitors to buy his influential books on architecture and entrepreneurship.

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The key to productizing architectural services is to replace the time-consuming model of billing by the hour with a more efficient model with set prices similar to those of products. Potential customers are easier to target, hiring people is more straightforward and project turnover rate increases. It is important to remember that productizing services is not a one-off endeavor, but a process developed by looking at what clients need.

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