In this inspiring interview Barbara shares her key learnings and insights from 40+ years of practicing architecture. Learn how she has build an office environment that encourages people to flourish. How she balacanced work and family life together with her partner and learn about her thoughts on the future of the architectural profession.

Enjoy the interview with Barbara Flammang!

Could you tell us a little about your background?

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley part of Los Angeles, when there were orange groves and lots of wide open spaces. I rode my bike everywhere and built forts out of adobe soil up in the canyons.

My mom always encouraged us to make things and work with our hands. Maybe that’s where my interest in building and design started.

You co-founded Killefer Flammang Architects with Wade Killefer over 40+ years ago. Tell us about your journey as an architect? Are there particular buildings or achievements which are you especially proud of?

Architecture is a cyclical profession, as we all know, and we’ve been through some rough times. But it is by definition an optimistic profession. We build things!

We turn nothing into something or take something and make it even better. And we provide shelter and safety and enjoyment to make our communities better and our cities better. I am proud of creating a firm where people have flourished, done great work, and moved on to start their own firms.

“We turn nothing into something or take something and make it even better.”

I am proud of all of our work. But I am particularly proud of the Lafayette Library in northern California, where a very involved community pushed to accomplish a true community center for the town. And the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where incredible services and housing are provided at the largest LGBT organization in the world.

Can you share your experiences in balancing work and family life as an architect firm owner?

Wade and I decided from day one that we would share time with our children and responsibilities for their care as equally as possible. One of us came home at 5:30 every day, and we alternated days, so that our care-giver could go home to her children.

I am very grateful that we were fortunate enough to have this situation, and were able to make it work. Furthermore, I think that with discipline and the knowledge that you have a finite amount of time to get things done, you can accomplish what you need to.

How have you grown your team and shaped the office culture over the years?

In creating and growing our firm, my guiding principle has always been to create and foster an environment where people can do their best work.

“My guiding principle has always been to create and foster an environment where people can do their best work.”

I’m also convinced that you have to trust and challenge people to believe in themselves. And you have to expect a lot from them. Therefore, they need to know that they are in charge of their success, no one else is.

What are the most successful marketing strategies that help your firm to attract new clients?

Listen to your clients, build their dreams, shaped by you, and they will hire you again.

You are also very involved in supporting opportunities for women in architecture. What changes do you encourage within the architectural industry so that women are equally represented?

Women need to be in leadership positions, pure and simple. It’s happening slowly, incredibly slowly, but that’s the best way for equality to be realized.

Do you have any advice for Archipreneurs who are interested in starting their own company in the built environment?

Take risks, trust yourself and don’t get discouraged if something goes wrong. Learn from your experience at other firms, good and bad.

What are your thoughts on the future of cities and the built environment? How can it improve, and what continues to inspire you?

Despite our recent Covid experience, I think people want to be near one another. Density is invigorating, but there has to be respite from density with adequate open space.

Furthermore, those who are addressing the affordable housing crisis in California through policy change and innovative design and construction solutions are inspiring me.

About Barbara Flammang, FAIA

As a founding partner of KFA, Barbara Flammang has overseen the design and construction of housing and community projects for nearly 40 years, from the adaptive reuse of historic buildings in downtown Los Angeles to the recently completed Los Angeles LGBT Center Anita May Rosenstein Campus in Hollywood.

Barbara was recently elevated to Fellowship by the AIA for leading her firm’s transformative work in downtown Los Angeles’ historic core; and for her inclusive management practices that have tenaciously advanced gender equity and diversity.

She has championed her firm’s achievement of 45-55% female architectural staff, consistently, for the past 34 years. The example set by her steadfast mentoring of young professionals has become an essential part of firm culture, resulting in high rates of licensure.

In addition, she encourages entrepreneurship and proudly acknowledges the successes of alumni of the firm.

Her volunteer work includes past service on the boards of the Los Angeles Conservancy and the Santa Monica Westside YWCA.

The post Barbara Flammang on Creating a Strong and Encouraging Firm Culture appeared first on Archipreneur.

The AEC industry suffers from a disproportionate number of male over female professionals. A large number of female architects leave the profession early on in their careers, with unequal pay and the tendency to be overlooked in for senior positions cited alongside many other reasons.

Given these issues, why should women consider archipreneurship? Wouldn’t all the obstacles that come with being an entrepreneur simply add to the prevailing obstacles for women working in the field of architecture? Although running an enterprise will naturally involve a certain level of stress, being one’s own boss in archipreneurship enables women to compete with their male counterparts on a more equal playing field. Archipreneurship, then, presents an interesting alternative for women who don’t want to climb a male dominated hierarchy of conventionally run architecture practices.

This hypothesis – that archipreneurship opens up opportunities for women and levels the playing field – is supported by the last two Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) surveys, which showed that female-led startups were more resilient during the 2008 recession, and that there has been a 40 percent increase of women (compared to 20 percent of men) going into self-employment since 2000. “An estimated 7 million female entrepreneurs and 5 million female business owners worldwide plan to grow their businesses by at least six employees over the next five years.”

The following 7 female archipreneurs prove that they can practice architecture with autonomy and passion by taking alternative approaches that add value for clients and communities.

Gunita Kulikovska

Designer and entrepreneur Gunita Kuļikovska works at the intersection between architecture and technology. She made it onto Forbes Latvia’s 2016 “30 under 30” list, and co-founded GO VR Studio, a company developing professional applications of virtual reality for the AEC industry. Their flagship product, Vividly, allows architects, real estate developers, construction companies and clients to experience and modify projects before they’re built. In 2015, Kulikovska initiated the project and exhibition World without Architect? for the third Tallinn Architecture Biennale in 2015 that allowed visitors to participate in designing a house in VR, customize the designs, and 3D print their creations.

“I refused to believe that the only mission of a young architect in this world was to design forms and structures according to building regulations, and being beholden to a constant, competitive environment – all for tiny fees,” she explained in an interview for Archipreneur, “so Go VR Studio answered the question of how to unleash the potential of an architectural mindset and create real value.”

Anupama Kundoo

Indian architect Anupama Kundoo designs low-cost modular homes across India. She started her practice in 1990 where she was engaged as a researcher and teacher at several prestigious schools, including the AA School of Architecture in London and Parsons School of Design in New York. As a female architect, she has been at the forefront of the trend to build easily maintained and sustainable homes using modular elements. Her practice has enabled communities to build affordable, quality modular homes that have a low environmental footprint.

For the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, Kundoo brought together a team of Indian craftsmen and students from the University of Queensland and the Università Iuav di Venezia to build a full-sized model of her already completed 2000 project in India. The team used ferrocement for the model, which allowed them to build the house just as one would do with Lego blocks. Kundoo is a great example of how architects can combine research, teaching and practice to address a specific issue.

Courtney Brett Bridges

Courtney Brett Bridges went to college at 14, got into Auburn University’s architecture program at 16, worked at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) at 20, and at 24 became the youngest licensed architect in the history of the American Institute of Architects. Instead of climbing the ranks at SOM, she decided to create her own firm, Casburn Brett Architects, in 2012 in Alabama, away from big urban centers where most architecture practices set up shop. Around this time, she caught the eye of lean urbanism evangelist Andrés Duany, with whom she collaborated on a new master plan for High Point, North Carolina.

Brett Bridges focused her efforts on keeping her business approach lean and bettering small communities instead of opening several offices across the country. “In some small communities we come in and talk about lessening parking requirements and doing natural drainage, with buildings that are right on the road and walkable,” Brett Bridges told Curbed. She continues to work as an architect while she acts as a mediator between local government and developers.

Rocio Romero

Rocio Romero is a 35-year-old Chilean-American architect and entrepreneur. Her line of prefab houses, LV Homes, come as flexible designs that clients can purchase for under $50,000. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Southern California Institute of Architecture. She designed her first house for her parents in Chile, which later evolved into the LV Home and became the basis of her business.

Romero works with individual manufacturers to acquire trusses, wall panels and exterior cladding materials, and has the units transported via flatbed semi-trailers. By productizing her services, Romero has created a sustainable enterprise that allows for the streamlined production of beautifully designed living units. With Romero’s approach, clients know the value they get for their money as they can experiment with all the aspects of their house before it’s created, from layouts to sizes and finishes.

Tracy Young

Tracy Young is the founder of PlanGrid, an extremely popular mobile construction app that digitizes documentation such as reports, field notes, change orders and any type of document used during construction processes that would otherwise come in paper form. The app combines cloud-based storage with portable devices like the iPad.

Before starting her own company, Young worked as a construction field engineer on several civil projects. After experiencing the cumbersome nature of working with documents on construction sites, she recognized the need for a tool that would save construction companies money, reduce paper waste and maximize efficiency.

To establish PlanGrid, Young and her friend Ryan Sutton-Gee quit their jobs, brought on board two more co-founders, and put all their effort into building the company. The business has since seen a surge in users and has become the number one app for the construction industry.

Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph

Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph of Design, Bitches built their design firm by addressing a specific, growing niche in the architecture of Los Angeles. Their designs are closely connected to the food scene in LA and are infused with references to popular culture, movies, art and fashion. So far, they have designed several restaurants and food-related venues.

Both Johnson and Rudolph made the AR Women in Architecture Awards 2016 shortlist as a power duo that’s taking Los Angeles by storm. The humor and playfulness with which they approach design is embodied in their name. In an interview for LA Weekly Johnson said, “When we take our drawings to get building permits, our name makes the ladies at the building department smile.”

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