This week’s interview is with David de Céspedes, Co-founder of the consulting agency Superform.

David worked as an architect before he founded Superform together with his brother Dino, who brought the business side to the company. David brought the creative side and his experience from working in architecture which exposed him to challenges all small businesses face: “Often,” he says in the interview, “the combination of understaffing, aggressive timelines, competition, and thin margins leave little room for firms to invest in long-term initiatives that could mean the difference between success and failure.”

Today David leads creative initiatives to help businesses grow. He’s led branding, marketing, and digital initiatives not only for the AEC industry, but also for hospitality and healthcare.

Keep on reading to learn how David transferred his architectural skills to consultancy work.

Enjoy the interview!

You founded the consultancy firm Superform with your brother. What are your respective backgrounds and when did you decide to start?

David de Céspedes: My brother and I were in Miami for the holidays a couple years back; I had just quit my job as a Junior Architect at a New York architecture firm, Dino just left his position as Chief Marketing Officer of a growing startup. Two weeks and a lot of brainstorming later, and we developed the framework for Superform – a new type of consultancy that leveraged marketing, design, and technology to help businesses innovate.

We got back to New York and immediately met with as many business leaders as we possibly could. The more we talked to leaders of professional service companies, the more we encountered the same recurring themes: they often hold high-level domain expertise, but lacked focus and investment in strategy, growth, and operations.

What services does your company offer?

David de Céspedes: We’re an innovation consultancy, which means we build strategies to make marketing, sales, and operations smarter. Tactically, this translates into various project types; we’ve built custom digital experiences, advised clients in building marketing campaigns, and implemented tech solutions to streamline workflows.

We think of Superform as the “Pre-RFP” business partner. In other words, our main priority is not to sell services, but to create growth by defining business goals, identifying opportunities, and fine-tuning strategies to drive growth. We’ve found this type of deep collaboration is most impactful with businesses that have seen early successes, but have not yet built out internal teams, say in marketing or sales.

What are the challenges an architectural office is facing and how can Superform help?

David de Céspedes: I’d say the biggest challenge architectural offices face is client acquisition. This is the lifeblood of architectural practice; without predictable revenue, firms are at major risk.

We’ve seen many professional service businesses stagnate, not because of inferior work, but due to a lack of awareness and differentiation. Historically, architects have shied away from proactive marketing and sales, often solely relying on partners’ personal networks for growth. As the field becomes more competitive, things like identifying a target client, refining the value proposition, and building a revenue pipeline are absolutely essential not only to sustaining growth, but to surviving as a business.

What kind of clients do you usually work for? Could you give us an example of a recent project?

David de Céspedes: Our primary clients are professional service companies, startups and small businesses. The common thread has been businesses that are growing, but haven’t built-out internal teams.

One of our favorite success stories is Aulder Capital, a New York real estate investment firm. Their biggest challenges were establishing a new company brand, raising outside capital, closing bigger deals, and acquiring the best talent. We worked together to create the company name, brand identity, messaging, and end-to-end digital strategy. Since our collaboration, the firm has doubled in size, and is closing property deals on average four times larger than before.

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

David de Céspedes: Studying and practicing architecture builds up skills that go a long way in entrepreneurship. In academia, students are expected to tackle complex design problems, visually illustrate their ideas, and verbally communicate their thought processes succinctly. I’ve found these skills translate directly to effectively engaging with clients – whether it’s sketching out ideas collaboratively or presenting ideas to C-level executives.

In tech, there’s a lot of buzz around empathy and human-centered design. In many ways, architects have been doing this for over a century.

Whether through research, fabrication, or construction, architects have a long history of creating environments that fundamentally elevate the human experience. Many popular concepts surrounding human-centered design, in some part, originated from architecture.

Working in architecture also exposed me to the challenges all small businesses face. Often, the combination of understaffing, aggressive timelines, competition, and thin margins leave little room for firms to invest in long-term initiatives that could mean the difference between success and failure.

What is next for Superform?

David de Céspedes: We’re excited to be joining Columbia University’s GSAPP Incubator – ‘a launch pad for new ideas and projects about architecture, culture, and the city.’ There, we’ll be partnering with Built-In – an initiative led by George Valdes and Adrian von der Osten, two Superform team members and ex-architects.

Over the next year, we’ll be collaborating to launch a podcast focused on architecture & entrepreneurship, as well as programming workshops on growth and innovation, focused on the challenges faced by early-stage architecture and creative businesses.

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

In entrepreneurship, the ‘work’ is actually a small piece of the business. Architects often overlook the importance of defining a target audience as well as a unique value proposition.

David de Céspedes: What differentiates you from competitors? Knowing that and knowing your customer means efforts in communications, marketing, sales, branding, partnerships and even recruiting are targeted and focused.

As an ex-architect, I know there’s a tendency to get lost in the creative process, but starting a business works an entirely different muscle, requiring you to sell, build relationships, manage teams, and have a vision for the future. Setting aggressive but attainable goals means you can measure both successes and failures intelligently, and steer your business in the right direction.

Don’t forget that venturing off on your own offers a huge opportunity: the ability to experiment. Take advantage of it!

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?

David de Céspedes: I think data will continue to transform architectural practice in a major way. On the building side, understanding (quantitatively) how space is utilized, and investing in things like post-occupancy analysis, architects can bring value not only via aesthetics, but by augmenting the creative process with data, bringing tangible value to clients in the process.

On the business end, data can help firms make informed strategic decisions, on everything from increasing employee productivity, to developing hiring processes that decrease turnover, to optimizing brand positioning to resonate with key audiences.

I think the growing ubiquity of technology will lead to the creation of digital tools becoming more commonplace in architecture firms. Larger firms have invested heavily in R&D, whether through developing their own proprietary software or project management systems, however in the future, even the smallest teams will be creating their own tools, and I believe the next generation of architects will lead the way in this regard. It’s an exciting time!

About David de Céspedes

David was born and raised in Hialeah, Florida, and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. An architect-turned-entrepreneur, David studied architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, as well as Florida International University’s College of Communication, Architecture & The Arts.

As Co-Founder of Superform, David leads creative initiatives to help businesses grow. He’s led branding, marketing, and digital initiatives for a variety of companies in real estate, hospitality and healthcare. Prior to founding Superform, David worked as a designer at DFA Architects in New York and Bonner + Stayner in Michigan.

The post Applied Innovation Consultancy: How David de Céspedes Co-Founded Superform appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Bruno Haid, founder of Roam – A “Space as a Service” startup.

Initially growing up in Austria and later living between San Francisco and New York, Bruno was used to not having a fixed home, and he became accustomed to working from anywhere. Bruno had the idea to turn this nomadic style of work into a business, and so he established Roam, a company that offered co-living and co-working spaces with a “Space as a Service” business model. At the time of writing, Roam is available in four cities: Miami, Bali, Tokyo, and London.

I met Bruno in an area of Berlin where you can already find a number of “Space as a Service” businesses such as hostels and co-working spaces – but no co-working/co-living options to be found. Coincidence? We will soon find out!

Bruno hires local architects and developers for each of his “Space as a Service” projects. For his first location in Bali he worked with Alexis Dornier, who we interviewed for Archipreneur Insights in 2016.

Keep on reading to learn how Bruno reached his goal to offer space as a service locations worldwide, and hear his thoughts about how changes in society influence modern living.

If you are a ‘work nomad’, be sure to check out Roam and all it has to offer!

Enjoy the interview!

Could you tell us a little about your background?

I am a high school dropout. I dropped out when I was 17. I was studying at one of those rigid, educationally questionable institutions you tend to get in Austria. I initially started out as a designer, all self-taught. I think in ’94 I accidentally came across the first HTML tutorials, and I remember there was a German lifestyle and culture magazine called Max – I don’t know if those guys are still around, but they were popular in the mid ‘90s, shortly before everybody started listening to Kruder & Dorfmeister and wearing Helmut Lang. This magazine influenced my move into design. I always knew I had a passion for architecture, despite having no formal training in it.

Right now, I find one of the most interesting areas of work is in organizational design. How can you create an incentive structure, for example, that works for everyone?

When did you decide to found Roam? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

I founded Roam a little over two years ago. There was no particular moment that I can think of, but I had a couple of influences. First, growing up on a farm with a bed and breakfast in the Alps helped me to visualize the hospitality aspect of Roam. Then there was the constant moving around: Five years ago, I was living between San Francisco, New York, and a couple of other places. I was broke but could fly cheaply, so I was basically bouncing back and forth between housesitting for friends and sleeping in whatever guestrooms were available. In my 20s, I had been focused on finding my own place and having my privacy. But travelling back and forth between places changed my mind-set.

I think the crucial moment for me came about two and a half years ago when I was doing some consulting work and a friend mentioned that there was a city in Bali called Ubud. Seeing the co-working spaces and the coffee shops there, I started to realize that I really could live and work from anywhere.

I had also started a co-living space in San Francisco about four years before that. That, coupled with my previous experiences, was how the itch to create something more came about.

Roam questions the traditional concepts of housing with a “Space as a Service” approach. I heard you mentioning the Bauhaus attitude – I like that notion. Could you elaborate?

I think that what sets Bauhaus apart from Bjarke Ingels, for example, is this tradition of craftsmanship that started in a very theoretical, abstract age of architecture. There was an ambition to see how to do things differently, practically, and thoroughly. That attitude brought you a ‘House and Home,’ a Frankfurt kitchen, and so on – those really well-thought-through elements of housing that then came to define the next hundred years. So, the Bauhaus attitude refers to an approach to tinker but also think things through.

So, do you think that contemporary housing will soon be obsolete?

Obsolete is maybe a bit harsh. Just like in financial services and other areas, things exist for a reason. You don’t have to abolish and disrupt everything in order to make a change. At the same time, a lot of the things that define housing – like kitchens – are a hundred years old, but if we all live two months here and four months there, or if we change flat mates and/or relationships, what are the effects on the kitchen?

The Bauhaus movement asked this question a hundred years ago. I think you can re-ask this question. As a result contemporary housing might not be radically different on the outside, but it might be different in the details.

Let’s talk about the buildings that you converted into co-living/co-working spaces. How did you find them?

We wanted to act globally from day one, with one location on each continent. We initially didn’t want to open a location in a tier one city because you don’t have a lot of room for experimentation. If you have a real estate asset in New York, for example, you’d better know what you’re doing.

We initially started looking for buildings in Mexico City but instead found a great place in Miami, entirely by chance. Bali happened on purpose because we knew that it was an up-and-coming location, an independent’s paradise with co-working spaces and a really good infrastructure. So, it’s a place where you can feasibly live for a couple of months. So, Miami and Bali were the first locations. London came later.

Did you do the location scouting by yourself, or did you get locals to look for you?

We do have a team of location scouts, but most of the time it has been a case of ‘someone who knows someone who knows someone.’

Different asset classes go to different cycles, so the traditional ecosystem can’t help you that much. Yes, you can ask commercial real estate agencies like JLL or CBRE, “We need a mid-block 25 to 75 unit hotel in a major American city,” and then they will produce a list. But in most cases it doesn’t work that way.

If you look at our partner list, you’ll find innovative place makers who don’t shy away from operating in neighborhoods that are in an early stage of development, or simply who aren’t afraid of doing more interesting things.

The buildings we looked for are not necessarily those that are also on the radar for traditional commercial real estate agencies.

What is the business model behind Roam, and how do you finance your projects?

The business model is quite simple. It is a space as a service model: We lease a building, rent out single units, and try to make about a 20% profit margin. Our basic business model is to take on long-term leases, give people flexibility and services, and charge about 20% – the profits fund the company. (A “Space as a Service” business model)

Do your tenants pay monthly or is there a subscription model?

The goal is for them to subscribe. Right now, you can say that you need a place for a week in London, and you can book yourself into Roam London based on availability. But this is because we currently have just four locations.

The goal is for us to become our customers’ primary housing provider, so that instead of signing a lease or buying an apartment you sign up with Roam for a one or two year period, and in time you’ll be able to choose from a number of beautiful and exciting cities as your next destination.

And for each project you hire different architects and developers?

Yes. That idea is something that we stole from a supermarket chain where I grew up in western Austria. They do something really clever: They take their budget and go to young architects who have perhaps only developed one or two single family homes or who have carried out a rooftop conversion somewhere. They give these architects their budget, tell them their functional requirements, and allow them to go crazy in designing the supermarket. The great part is that not only has every second of these supermarkets won an international architecture prize but they have also become the cornerstones of their rural communities.

The biggest organizational challenge for Roam is: How can we create a system that makes it possible to create a unique but also reliable inventory? If you look at hotels, for example, you can either have an inventory that is very unique but doesn’t really scale – the starchitects who have perhaps developed five legendary boutique hotels but who have never built an organization that can sustain more because it’s dependent on one or two people – or you can have something like WeWork (the large space as a service co-working company) where you don’t exactly know whether you’re sitting in Berlin, San Francisco or China.

The solution was to let go of our ego and let others design something that’s highly localized. The aesthetics and architecture of our buildings are completely different, and so we didn’t want to create a ‘one size fits all’ model.

The building in Bali, for example, is a contemporary boutique hotel, while the building in Miami is one of the city’s oldest standing structures. Nevertheless, we are very opinionated about how our communal kitchens look: We put out the cutting boards each morning with a single white cloth and a knife; the protocol there is very clear!

What is your role in the development process?

As a CEO, you try to make sure that everything fits together, so I would say that my role is in designing the organizational structure. I can say that I’ve succeeded in my job when the organization says, “We don’t really need you anymore. We’re good.” That’s what I try to aim for!

How many users/subscribers does Roam have?

We have about 1,100 ‘Roamers’ to date.

When did the first location open?

A little more than a year ago in Bali, which was developed by Alexis Dornier.

We interviewed Alexis, so I have seen pictures of the location. It is very beautiful.

It’s an amazing space. It’s a combination of his ‘nerdy’ architectural approach and the local flavor from the craftsmen who built it. They have created something really magical together.

A lot of architects would say, “Let’s combine East and West. Can we put a Buddha over there, next to the exposed concrete?” But Alexis is someone who really digs deep when it comes to questioning the underlying principle. That could mean anything from exploring the social construct of a home, through understanding how families live together, to designing a specific method of suspension. He has designed a restaurant, for example, that’s entirely suspended from metal scaffolding. It’s amazing.

What are the future goals and plans for Roam?

The immediate goal is to follow through on our promise that you can live anywhere. Going truly global is obviously a long-term goal for us, but we want to be in at least 10 to 12 cities by the end of the year, which will hopefully include Berlin.

Is that why you are in Berlin right now?

We are actively looking for places in Berlin. It’s pretty high up on the list. Hopefully, we’ll be able to announce something this year; it depends if the building is a ground-up development or if it needs general renovation. We’ll hopefully make an announcement for Berlin either this year or early next year.

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

Just do it, step by step. Trust your instincts and show up every morning.

What I found surprising, having established a couple of companies that didn­’t work out, was how the simplest of ideas can turn out to be the most successful.

There’s this huge tendency, especially in Europe and especially if you are doing something creative, to over-intellectualize. But creative innovation isn’t the most important thing, it’s more about just getting on with it and having the stamina to keep going, to trust yourself and to give yourself time to make a success of your business.

Thinking that everyone else is more successful and doubting yourself is not helpful to becoming an entrepreneur. The most interesting and the most successful people have struggled for a long time. They have taken their time to get everything together, but then they did it. And they did it with consequence, in the good times and bad, and they followed through. This is what leads to great outcomes. That can be true for a great number of people, not just architects.

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?

I am most interested in the changes made in social contact. It might be a selfish answer because Roam is specifically working on that, but I honestly believe that we’re all just getting started in this area. If you look at city architecture, then everything has traditionally been built around cars and highways. But that’s changing: Cities are now frequently looking to the developments in automation and the potential of smart cities, so how does that change architecture? The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk talked about bubbles, and he is constantly moving back and forth between bubbles and comparing them.

These changes in focus have huge implications for everything from residential real estate and office spaces to retail and urban planning. For that reason, I think the biggest opportunity for architects is to take a closer look into how society is changing and how infrastructure can be rebuilt based on those changes. Of course, some of this is technologically driven – we now have parametric designs and competition capacities that enable the construction of buildings – this would have been impossible some 15 years ago. Perhaps, by combining technical capabilities and new materials with the rapid changes in society and culture, we can start to realize the future of architecture.

About Bruno Haid

Bruno is founder and CEO of Roam. He grew up in hospitality, in a tiny Austrian village, built a couple of startups and led large-scale projects for corporates like McKinsey, BMW or Swarovski. He’s also a founding tenant of co-living spaces on 3 continents, and writes something about housing and hospitality on Medium approximately every decade, but wants to get better at it.

His perfect Roam location is directly bordering a Canadian mountain range, a beach in central America, the New York MTA system and a good resolution of his childhood issues.

The post Space as a Service: How Roam is Building a Co-Living Business for Digital Nomads appeared first on Archipreneur.

An architect’s average median salary is very low, despite it taking over nine years to qualify. This is “totally utterly absurd” says Roger Zogolovitch, creative director of Solidspace, and comes down to the fact that architects don’t monetize their services.

Architects need to understand and prove the services they provide can be value and not only costs for the client. Clients are interested in added value. The job of an architect is to communicate that value as persuasively as possible.

But if adding value is not solely just based on design skills, what’s the market knowledge that architects need to survive? In other businesses, these include a relentless focus on the customer, understanding the importance of increasing sales and profits, and building brands.

Though architects might initially suffer from a lack of business knowledge necessary for entrepreneurship, the architectural discipline does at least prepare architects as problem-solvers. In being creative, architects have already fought half the battle. Creativity is a hard thing to teach and learn; business is not.

Architect’s widely held distrust of being “commercial” is having serious consequences for the profession argues developer Roger Zogolovitch and his son Gus, chairman of Inhabit Homes.

In their talk, held on 8 January 2015, they argue that architects need to put as much emphasis on sales and marketing as design in order to grow a successful business. And they advise architects “to get their hands dirty” by expanding into other areas such as property development, in order to understand their own “creative commercial mode” and understand the decisions that have a tangible financial impact.

See for yourself in the video of the talk by archiboo:

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To learn more about how you can embrace the business behind designing buildings check out Archipreneur’s book on new business models for architects, “The Archipreneur Concept”. There is a whole chapter on Architect as Developers where we explore funding options and practical examples of exactly how successful archipreneurs have used bank loans, partnering and venture capital to develop their own buildings.

The post Editor’s Pick: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur with Roger and Gus Zogolovitch appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Igor Marko and Petra Marko, founders of Marko&Placemakers.

Marko&Placemakers is a city design and research consultancy based in London.

Their concept of placemaking is about understanding the city as a living organism, linking the different layers of a city in unexpected ways and creating new narratives to allow curiosity and desire to interlace with the physical space, both existing and new. In this experiential design process, the role of Marko&Placemakers is that of a creator, bringing new ideas, as well as a mediator, linking existing processes and people.

And process – interaction, mediation and communication with groups and people – is the core of the work of the consultancy.

Keep reading to learn how these two architects address social, environmental and economic issues that cities face today.

I hope you enjoy the interview!

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

Igor: Our paths crossed collaborating on public realm projects. I had previously led FoRM Associates, an urban design practice. Petra worked as architect at John McAslan + Partners before qualifying as a ‘creative entrepreneur’ to develop her role as enabler and facilitator.

We strongly felt there is a new paradigm in city making, which is about involvement and education of users. While our portfolio builds on a decade of hands-on experience of implementing urban regeneration projects at FoRM, our goal with the new consultancy was to work much more closely with the clients and users in the strategic and conceptual phases of projects.

The initial stages are when important decisions are made with impact on long term design quality and resilience of places. This negotiation process often happens without creative input and doesn’t have a holistic understanding. Form an entrepreneurial perspective this is a niche our consultancy operates in, striving to break generic and mechanical city making processes.

What are the major problems and opportunities that cities face in the 21st century?

Igor: The biggest problems are inflexible and technocratic planning systems, which can’t cope with constant change – a natural state of cities today. Lack of effective instruments of communication; distrust between the citizens, local government and private sector; and ultimately lack of political vision add to the planning conundrum. “Who owns the city” (David Harvey) is a question pertinent to 21st Century urbanisation.

On a global scale, migration and climate change are huge challenges that cities can’t solve on their own – we need to work together as a global community. Transport and mobility remain big issues as cities try to move towards pedestrian-friendly environment while retaining the convenience of cars. Recent transformations such as pedestrianisation of Times Square in New York show that it is possible to reverse the trend from a car-oriented to a people-oriented environment.

On the other hand, multi-million cities are springing up in Asia entirely focused on cars. It is a challenge the global leaders need to address urgently. That’s why it is important that architects have the right communication tools to engage with policy makers about these issues.

What services does your company provide to create successful solutions for city development?

Petra: Our work addresses the overlaps between place, process and people, reaching beyond the physical aspects of design. In this experiential design process, we see the role of the placemaker as that of a creator, bringing new ideas, as well as a mediator, linking existing processes and people. We often work on client side in the strategic phases of projects – helping them to develop the brief and long term vision, as well as a ‘roadmap’ how to achieve this.

We see public space infrastructure as fundamental in city making, especially when creating new urban areas. Public space is the glue in between – an exchange space for people, which helps develop character of a place through joint experiences.

Our work is supported by continuous socio-economic research, which identifies strengths and performance of neighbourhoods in order to help integrate new development as well as supporting the existing assets of the place. Our approach is ‘parametric’ in that each of our projects revolves around its specific challenges. While our core team remains small, we collaborate with a wide network of experts, often beyond the field of architecture and urbanism, such as economists, sociologists, geographers or artists.

How do you create great places? What strategies does your company provide?

Igor: Our ‘signature’ as a consultancy is our way of working – i.e. the process, rather than specific aesthetics or form. Our process can be described through several principles. Firstly, inclusivity and sustainability – not only ecological but more importantly social, understanding the impact of projects on existing and future communities. Secondly, it is the experience a place enables – something that may sound basic but for us is fundamental, such as meeting friends. And finally – communication – without which nothing could happen!

Our approach is about facilitating and negotiating change using design thinking and creative tools drawing on these principles. We believe that successful city making needs to combine both bottom up and top down approach, in order to sustain growth and genuine character of places. This means not only engagement of local people and stakeholders, but also lobbying and negotiating with decision makers to ensure that energy invested into bottom up initiatives will have genuine and lasting effect on the whole community, not just communities of interest.

Who are the clients you usually work for?

Petra: We work for public, private as well as third sector. Our consultancy is part of London Mayor’s special assistance team for High Streets regeneration. Many of the local High Streets which used to be central hubs for the capital’s town centres are struggling with competition from shopping malls and other more popular destinations.

In our research we focus on building on the existing qualities of these places. By engaging the local shop owners and visitors we uncover potential of places which can be often harnessed through simple interventions and support. We have already mapped the London Olympic legacy area and several London boroughs, revealing the people behind the local economy. Our most recent study of Coulsdon Town Centre for London Borough of Croydon will establish the base of a Business Improvement District, which will help attract greater mix and build on the existing assets of the town centre.

Igor: On another scale, we are working on several riverfront masterplans in Central Europe, where we oversee the public realm strategy – so we are working as an intermediary between architects, the client and the municipality. In Bratislava, we are working on the public realm framework for a new city quarter designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The new mixed used development will integrate an existing industrial heritage building which will act as a cultural hub for the place.

Alongside these strategic projects, we have also completed a number of public realm commissions, including a community park and a new public space within an administrative complex. We also enjoy getting involved in projects outside Europe, with successful competition collaborations in South Korea and Singapore, where we were recently shortlisted for a strategic vision for Orchard Road – the central shopping precinct of Singapore – in collaboration with ARUP.

Which one was your most challenging project and why?

Igor: Northala Fields Park in London has been the most challenging, but perhaps also most rewarding project, which fundamentally shifted my thinking about the role of architects. Architects naturally default to controlling up to the last detail. In case of Northala park, we have gone through a two-year participatory process, where locals were directly engaged in shaping the future programme and activities within the new park. Working directly with the users meant that as designers we could always test ideas in discussion with people and make them better suited for their needs.

Our role as designers went beyond the physical aspects to developing a financial model – we used recycled construction waste from adjacent developments. The deposit of this inert waste material generated £6milllion income to create a new topology and programmable landscape at no cost to the taxpayers. Today, Northala is a vital community asset and people actively take care of the park. Coming back after years to see that the park is becoming more and more loved and cared for by the people is what motivates me.

Petra, you have a degree in Creative Entrepreneurship in addition to your architecture degree. From your experience, do you think this is absolutely necessary in order to run a consultancy?

Petra: Since the economic crisis of 2008, the architecture profession has been adapting to the new realities of the industry – lack of investment, unstable political landscape, as well as global factors such as climate change. I found there was little room for discussing these challenges in practice.

If you are working on a tender package of a £40million building, it is all about the detail and delivery. I was interested in the bigger picture – how does a project come off the ground in the first place – how to assemble the best team for it – and how to retain a vision from inception up to completion.

ICCE (Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship) was in its second year running at Goldsmiths when I joined the course in 2009. I conceived of my masters’ as a ‘sabbatical’ to allow me to get out of the ‘architecture box’ and explore the possibility to develop my role as facilitator of built environment.

The learning process at ICCE was very much revolving around each individual student as we were a diverse mix of creative individuals from a wide range of backgrounds from performance, media and music through to architecture and design. It was very much about recognising and fine tuning one’s personal values and reflecting these onto our professional lives; as well as huge amount of practical learning from business planning and time management to networking.

The course Director Sian Prime’s one-to-one approach gave invaluable guidance and confidence to each of us on our path ‘in between’. Many of the people I studied with remain good friends to date and a great network beyond the architecture field.

Alongside my masters’ I also started working for an architect-turn-developer (Solidspace) and gained a glimpse of the development process from the other side of the fence. This was really eye-opening. You start understanding that the architect is part of the process only for a limited period in the middle – with important strategic phase and post occupancy phase on either side. Land acquisition, which in London is the biggest challenge, along with financing, are perhaps two most significant factors determining any new development.

It is not surprising that many architects today act as facilitators of self-built housing projects, in order to gain more control over the building process and thus also the final product and its financial viability. This role requires additional skill sets apart from design and an MA in creative entrepreneurship or even a ‘traditional’ MBA could provide the additional tools that many architecture schools lack.

You told me you are currently part of the new London School of Architecture (LSA) practice network and leading the Unstable City design think tank. Could you tell us a little about this project?

Petra: The London School of Architecture was set up by Will Hunter and his colleagues as a response to the need of a more practice-based education model, which would prepare students for the realities of the profession today. With my interest in architecture education I was immediately drawn to the school and our practice joined the LSA network right at the start. It is a very exciting time with the first academic year nearly completed.

We led the LSA Unstable City design think tank jointly with Grimshaw architects and over the past 6 months our group of students developed ideas around the notion of instability as positive phenomena. Our starting point was that cities are in constant change. We embraced this change and sought to understand London’s instability as an unlocking mechanism for sustainable development.

Our aim was to explore resilient and responsive approach to understand, design and manage the evolutionary balance of London in face of the pressures of the next 25-50 years on the case study of Rotherhithe, a somewhat ‘forgotten’ central predominately residential area on London’s riverfront. The research and proposals from all five think tanks will be published online so look out for news on the LSA website. You can also find out more about the school and its ethos by reading the Archipreneur interview with the founder, Will Hunter.

Do you have any advice for “Archipreneurs” who are interested in starting their own business?

Petra: Become an expert at communicating. Nice images won’t be enough – you need to be able to describe the benefits of your work and the process not only to your peers, but to a range of people from investors through to the users. Promote your work where your clients are – it is nice to be featured in architecture magazines, but these are often followed by architects only.

While architects are an important and natural network you will be part of, reaching beyond the field can be surprisingly rewarding. Get out as much as possible and don’t be shy to ask questions – people who are passionate about their work always have a good piece of advice, no matter how ‘important’ they are. And finally follow your instincts and be true to yourself.

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?

Igor: I think it is time for architects to get engaged with politics in order to enact change. Cities today are the most powerful social and economic structures, and while we are in an increasingly digitally networked world, cities are still physical structures and urbanism and politics are inherently interconnected.

Architects default to communicating with each other, but it is vital that the value of architecture is promoted at policy level as well as towards the general public. A good example is the office of Chief Urban Designer in New York City. Any bottom up processes that make cities more livable can only thrive and survive while there is good decision making enabling this from the top down.

About the founders Igor Marko and Petra Marko

Marko&Placemakers is part of a growing wave of new city design consultancy that fundamentally shifts from a product-focused to a process-based urbanism. Their role is often strategic, looking at the overlaps between place, process and people, and goes beyond the physical aspects of design to address socio-economic issues.

Igor Marko is the co-founder and director of Marko&Placemakers. He has extensive experience in advising on strategy and integration of public realm in new developments and major regeneration schemes. Igor has led transformational projects including Northala Fields Park in London, critically acclaimed as an exemplar of people-led sustainability. His experimental approach to urbanism crossing boundaries between art, architecture and public space resulted in visionary ideas preparing the ground for transformation of London’s pedestrian and cycling environment.

Alongside practice, Igor is a passionate mentor, having supervised initiatives for organisations including European Urban Design Laboratory Stadslab and various architecture schools. He is a regular speaker at debates concerning participatory placemaking including forums such as European Economic Congress (Katowice), reSITE conference (Prague) and Changwon Eco City (Korea).

Petra Marko is an architect, communicator and enabler of creative projects within the urban realm. She is co-founder of Marko&Placemakers and believes that sustainable design practice is about combining creativity with hands-on facilitation, mediation and communication. Pursuing her role as facilitator of good quality built environment, Petra completed a masters in Creative Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London.

She has been actively promoting research and entrepreneurship through her work, as a member of the RIBA Small Practice Group and as leader of the Unstable City design think tank at the London School of Architecture. Petra has led several High Street and employment studies in the UK and Europe and has been a contributor to numerous initiatives including RIBA Guerrilla Tactics, reSITE (Prague) and Urban Transcripts (London and Berlin). She is the author of Together Alone. Architecture and Collaboration – a book exploring the future role of architects.

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The fast-paced advancement of technology and globalization has introduced new business models, more efficient coordination and, above all, an environment where the evolution of industries can no longer be a linear process. Crosscutting disciplines are emerging as a new business paradigm in the age of digital economy. This trend for interlinking disciplines is also penetrating the AEC industry – but at what rate?

We are seeing great advancements in the fields of Building Information Modeling (BIM), artificial intelligence, 3D printing, nanomaterials and communications (Airbnb and Uber are two of many similar ventures that are remapping our cities) but the AEC profession is struggling to keep up. Even today, the majority of architecture studios essentially operate within a 50-year old framework, project funding mechanisms seem outdated, turnaround is slow and most construction work is still performed manually.

Any improvements, however, are noticeable, and they are mostly in the area of new software and automation. While the latter usually occurs under the patronage of institutes and corporate businesses, when it comes to software, the innovators are mostly teams of young professionals who combine their architectural background with their knowledge of coding.

The following details the developments currently underway in the categories of design, presentation and construction, and demonstrates how architects, engineers and construction managers can benefit from these innovations:

Design

A myriad of new architecture apps have started to make a difference in creating efficient and versatile designs. These new tools allow architects to reexamine floor plans, make quick design changes and reposition virtual furniture using nothing more than their smartphones and tablets. Some of these apps allow architects to measure a room’s dimensions and draw plans on-site, like MagicPlan. Native Rhino 3D models can be viewed and shared on a mobile or tablet using iRhino, while the Floored iPad app targets the real estate market and displays 3D floor plans using next-generation 3D cameras.

The Zurich-based founders of Archilogic have developed a way to produce interactive environments through advanced algorithms that turn real estate floor plans into scalable 3D models. The models don’t require any software, apps, or prior knowledge for using Archilogic. The team plans to introduce an option to enable external users to upload their own content onto the platform and so build an extensive 3D database online.

The cloud-based green app Plangrid is aiming to revamp the construction industry by allowing its users to store blueprints and construction documents on iPads and iPhones, which will save contractors’ time and, crucially, paper. Users of the app can share plans, markups, photos and reports. All project drawings are stored in the cloud and can be used by general contractors, construction workers, architects, engineers and other project team members, so completely removing the need for paper.

Presentation

Taking their cue from interactive and immersive videogame environments, young architects have started to use 3D as more than a set of hyper-realistic design stills. A game-changer in this field is the IrisVR, which has taken 3D into the world of virtual reality and allowed architects to convert and view their 3D SketchUp, Revit, and BIM models in virtual reality using Oculus Rift. Architects can use IrisVR during the design process but its greatest potential lies in showing clients new buildings or other types of projects on the application itself rather than having to resort to costly and time-consuming on-site visits. The app is still in its prototype phase but it promises to revolutionize the way we visualize architecture before construction work takes place.

In architecture, drones are now providing an abundance of information on context and visual representation. Remote-controlled technology allows architects, photographers, videographers and planners to gain a greater insight into built environments. Although the use of unmanned aerial vehicles has officially been sanctioned, numerous examples of valuable drone footage, including the building of Apple’s sprawling corporate headquarters in California, prove the benefits of this new trend.

Construction

In terms of construction, automated and autonomous machines are becoming mainstream and transforming the ways materials are made. Innovative use of robots bridges the gap between old construction techniques and more advanced design tools, as well as the gap between the architecture industry and academia. The now famous industrial robot KUKA is equipped for the (pre-)fabrication of building elements and parts, as well as molds for laminating fiber composites and mock-ups for furniture, car and industrial design. KUKA has made experimental design possible by introducing cutting-edge technology to the world. Students at ICD Stuttgart, for example, used a 6-axis KUKA to design innovative pavilion structures each year by implementing various lightweight carbon fiber composites.

An even more radical approach to fabrication has been taken up by young professionals and studios like Gramazio & Kohler and Raffaello d’Andrea. This studio built a 6-meter tall tower using a small quad-rotor helicopter. Automated building facades are currently being researched by architects Stephen A. Gage and Will Thorn, while students at Sci/Arc are configuring robotic arms in choreographed collaborative movements.

3D printing technology has become a significant trend in building construction. One of the most advanced examples is a project by Behrokh Khoshnevis, whose revolutionary robot can 3D print an entire 2,500-square-foot home in just 24 hours. This 3D printer has two crane-like arms and a crossbeam to carry the printhead. The entire machine runs along a set of tracks and can work simultaneously on all parts of the house. This process, named contour crafting, caught NASA’s eye, which has since given Khoshnevis a grant to experiment with lunar structures and buildings that could potentially be erected on other Earth-like planets.

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Although we are yet to see a substantial movement toward an organic approach to building spaces, the above examples provide glimpses into a more collaborative, versatile and adaptable future for the AEC industry. This prospect is closely tied with archipreneurship, an emerging service that specifically explores the ways for synergizing technological advancements and globalization.

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