The idea of automating or productizing architectural design services is a contentious one and it trickles down to the very definition of architecture. But when it comes to the business aspect of the profession, it becomes clear that many among today’s most renowned architects owe their success to the idea of productizing their services.

Instead of reinventing their work with every new client and repeating the same time-consuming processes, these architects have reoriented their businesses towards creating products. Customer-driven business strategies and the necessity of staying competitive are pushing AEC professionals to become faster, more efficient and convey their work to clients in the most succinct and clear way possible. The latter is particularly relevant to architects, since the nature of the profession has long suffered from the inability to translate services into tangible values that clients can recognize. For too long architectural services have been seen as a cost, rather than value.

Thanks to the huge technological advancements of the late 20th century, the scope of ‘problems’ architects can address has become wider. This freedom allows them to not only expand their field of professional interests, but also choose new, more efficient business models. Designing and selling plan sets, creating apps, generating libraries of BIM components, designing software and project management tools, optimizing manufacturing processes, self-publishing and creating online courses are among the most common methods for architects going into product development.

Albrecht von Alvensleben, founder of Bullenberg

Albrecht von Alvensleben is an architect and founder of Bullenberg, a furniture label based in Berlin. Bullenberg manufactures handcrafted wooden tables using wood sourced from von Alvensleben’s family estate in Saxony, near Berlin. The idea of creating a business had a humble beginnings – a friend was looking for a solid oak tabletop.

Being a trained architect enabled Albrecht to do a lot of the work himself, including designing the website and taking photos of the finished products. Bullenberg is currently planning to move from direct sales to retail and expand the brand’s work to include other types of products. If you want to learn more about Bullenberg, check out the interview with Archipreneur.

Seth Grizzle and Jonathan Junker, founders of Graypants

Architects Seth Grizzle and Jonathan Junker founded Graypants as a company dedicated to making pendant lights made entirely of repurposed corrugated cardboard. Their 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.

Michael Kohn, founder of Stickyworld

U.K. based architect Michael Kohn has recognized the need for a closer and more interactive collaboration between all the stakeholders in the process of building. He left the practice he worked in and created Stickyworld, a web- and mobile-based tool that enables sharing of projects and multimedia with the possibility of commenting and posting virtual sticky notes directly on images. The software allows more voices to be heard during the design and construction process.

Before creating his business, Kohn collected insights from customers and managed to pinpoint the problems they needed solving. Organizers are offered a suite of tools to prepare and publish interactive content websites called ‘rooms’, supporting different formats of engagement such as ideas forums, consultations or design reviews. Organizers can set the time frame for opening participation, automatically publish invites and also close participation at a set time. It allows interactive content including images, maps, 360 panoramas, videos, PDFs, and Powerpoints.

Edwin Heathcote, founder of Izé

Architect Edwin Heathcote set up Izé in 2001 as a manufacturer of a wide range door handles and fittings in collaboration with different designers and architecture firms. Heathcote has been the architecture and design critic of The Financial Times and author of several books on architecture and design.

Izé has licensed Lina Bo Bardi’s famous horn-shaped door handle design from the Lina Bo Bardi Foundation and received rights to produce them commercially 62 years after they were designed. “It turned out that the door handle was, proportionate to its size, the most influential piece of the building that I could think of that I could get into manufacture,” Heathcote told Dezeen.

Igor Siddiqui, founder of ISSSStudio

Igor Siddiqui, another architect-turned-product designer, worked as a practicing architect before setting up his own office ISSSStudio in 2006. The firm designs and manufactures everything from product prototypes to single-family houses using digital techniques and fabrication technologies. The team explores materials properties, flexibility, mobility and performance-driven design.

Their Tessellated Floorscape is a prototypical mass-customized rug originally produced for Aronson’s Floor Covering. It is based on a digital animation from which a different key-frame is extracted each time a new piece is commissioned or sold. The material is cut in a way that maximizes the intricacy of the contoured shape of each tile, while minimizing waste throughout the fabrication.

Protoplastic is made from biodegradable plastic and the acrylic formwork, while Ceramic Tesssseltile tiles are manufactured through conventional methods of mass-production as a single tile shape that produces the greatest degree of variation when multiplied across the larger field.

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While these five examples showcase design collectives or architects that have dedicated their work entirely to creating products, those who want to keep offering mainstream architectural services can also start by adding products to their existing offering. Turning ideas into products is fun, creative and can be a fantastic, scalable business model.

The post Turning Ideas into Products: 5 Architects who Successfully Sell their Designs appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Albrecht von Alvensleben and Maximilian Pauen, architects and founders of Bullenberg, a furniture label based in Berlin.

Albrecht and Max design and manufacture handcrafted wooden tables out of oak wood, taken from the forest of the von Alvensleben family in Saxony-Anhalt, 200 km west of Berlin. The manufacturing process is very personal to the two architects: they carefully select each tree before processing them into logs. Everyone involved in the production is located within a 15 km radius, thus ensuring that each table has been individually crafted and can be entirely customizable.

Here are Albrecht’s and Max’s thoughts on the intersection between architecture and furniture design, as well as on what skills an architect can bring to business development and how they can turn a profit.

I hope you enjoy the interview!

What made you decide to found Bullenberg and create tables? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

Max: We were motivated to create products where we would be responsible for the entire process of making them. At the time we first considered it, we were both working in architectural offices in Berlin. The impetus came from a friend – also an architect – who was looking for a solid oak tabletop. It was easy to find a source of great quality raw material as Albrecht’s family had a forest. It took no time for us to realize that we could create saleable products from this source. And so the kernel of the idea was sown.

Throughout history, architects have created a number of memorable furniture designs. Charles Eames, for example, had his own architectural practice before he got into design. What do you find the most fulfilling about product creation?

Max: I believe that if you create an object from start to finish, you have much more influence on its details than you do in architecture. Of course, architecture is very conceptual work, but in the implementation stage, you cannot be involved in every little detail; you cannot be a specialist in every area – the architectural process is really more about coordination and compromises. In creating furniture, especially wood, you can really breathe life into it. The creation process is not as pragmatic; it is much more emotional.

Do you miss working as an architect?

Albrecht: Yes, but only partly. The relatively simple process of plan-drafting for days and weeks on end is not something we miss at all. Working as an architect often seems exciting and cool, but in reality it’s much more tedious and repetitive. What we sometimes miss is working on a larger concept – a greater, more stimulating idea that has been mulled over for months and years before coming into fruition.

Max: The concept for tables had been decided on at a relatively early stage of the company’s founding. Based on that concept, we developed a product. Of course, the concept itself is constantly being adapted and further developed. In architecture there is always time to start anew, and concepts are constantly evolving in consultations with clients and customers. In contrast, our client feedback and design cycle is a more rapid process, which can be oddly enjoyable.

Albrecht: But it’s necessary to say that, in practice, concept development is only a tiny part of a project – it’ll only take a few days or weeks. The remaining work is all about drawing on the computer – that’s part fun, part purely mechanical.

What are your visions for your brand? Are you planning to create more products in addition to the table ARX?

Max: The original concept will remain, but we also want to create new products. The next step we are planning is to move from direct sales into retail. We already have a shop in New York, but our main customer base is here in Berlin, buying directly from us. Many of our customers buy the table unseen, but it is really a product that you want to touch. Our next step, therefore, will be to distribute our tables in specific stores across Germany.

We have already designed a number of new pieces but have not yet made a final decision on our next product. Designing is fun, largely because you get to deal with materials and have to consider what your carpenters need to learn in order to physically produce the product. This is an important exercise; a sort of ‘evaluation’ where we can draw conclusions about how the next product might work, both in terms of building it and its success in the marketplace.

But designing also requires us to question the dimensions of the project: we developed a table, and during that process, learned how to scale a project. We are committed to making products where we know exactly who is involved and where they are located. We would really like to design a chair.

Do you have any tips for “Archipreneurs” who want to start and build their own business?

Albrecht: Get all the formalities and paperwork done as soon as possible – and as neatly as possible – so that your mind is free for structuring the idea that you want to implement.

We have found out that we can accomplish a great deal on our own as trained architects, which of course is very good, because it means that we do not have to pay for expensive services. It stands to reason that, as architects, we can present products. We have, for example, designed our own website and taken all the photos ourselves. You should not be afraid of trying to make things yourself, even if some things don’t turn out so well. You can always build on and revise what you have created.

We said that we want to try everything in business for ourselves at least once. That’s also important in order to see how much effort it takes and better assess what we really do need to outsource in the future.

What is not so good in current architectural education is that students don’t learn much about business. I believe that you must confront the mechanics of business at an early stage before you can fully understand the magnitude of what you hope to achieve: what would you sell, how much time will it take, etc. We have worked this to our advantage; we really got out there and sold from day one, all without a marketing budget. The product spread quite rapidly through channels such as social media and the press, which was very nice of course.

In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major business opportunities for up and coming architects?

Albrecht: The notion of the traditional architectural office is associated with extremely high standards. To ensure sales, clients must comply with standard regulations. Sometimes I do think that the regulations might be in need of changing, since Germany has recently seen such an influx of people and we need homes for them. This isn’t to lower standards but rather to allow for a bit more innovation. It may give rise to new construction concepts; perhaps we’ll see more instructions for conducting DIY projects. With a good concept you can work with a few people and achieve a great deal, even if they do not have the relevant training. This is still not yet possible in Germany. Maybe it will change in the future but, again, ideally not at the expense of our own high standards and expectations.

About the founders

Albrecht von Alvensleben studied architecture under Zaha Hadid in Vienna and at Cooper Union in New York. He has worked for architecture studios in London, New York and Berlin, and is also a dedicated photographer. A large body of Albrecht’s work has been published and exhibited.

Maximilian Pauen studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna and has worked for architectural and design studios in Vienna, Berlin and Arezzo. Prior to his studies, he apprenticed furniture designer Paul Kelley in London. Max has won numerous competitions in housing and urban design.

The post Architecture and Design: How to Build a Furniture Brand with Bullenberg appeared first on Archipreneur.