Learn to sell something, anything. You’ll never learn more about what it takes to run a business than when you put yourself out there and make an offering.

– Michael Kilkelly, Founder of ArchSmarter

***

Be persistent and don’t give up on your dreams. Find the best team members to build your business with and, most importantly, – don’t be afraid to dare and enjoy what you do.

– Adi Biran & Lihi Gerstner, Founders of Splacer.co

***

It’s all about surrounding yourself with the most talented people who can help you realize your vision and stay most true to your ideas.

– Natasha Case, Founder of Coolhaus

***

Studying architecture is just the greatest thing there is. The skills learned are actually quite good for management. You learn to form a vision, present this vision or break it down to smaller tasks.

– Kaspar Helfrich, Co-Founder of Archilogic

***

I hope that if architects and design minded people are impacting development and urbanism in a greater way, our buildings and our communities will only get better.

– Ari S. Heckman, Founder of ASH NYC

***

Architects have a huge contribution to make to the world in the 21st century – particularly in shaping how we can live sustainably and happily within ever-denser cities and within the Earth’s resources.

– Will Hunter, Founder & Director LSA

***

Just get started, and don’t be afraid because the people who are successful are willing to fail and so you should be too.

– David Belt, Founder of Macro Sea

***

I would like to see architects be less passive in their roles and with their profession. For me that means real estate development. But it could mean any number of other variations on the trade. Architects are holistic thinkers. I am at my best when I use my right brain and my left brain equally. Architecture school hones both of these hemispheres in a way that’s not common in other professions.

– Kevin Cavenaugh, Founder of Guerrilla Development

***

Start today…! I suffered from analysis paralysis for a long time, fearing I’d never be able to save enough working capital to make a run at starting a business. I was determined to spend as little as possible to make it work.

– Eric Reinhold, Founder of 30×40 Design Workshop

***

In the architectural profession we mainly think about solutions, and we constantly challenge how things are normally done. I think that’s a rare quality.

– Jakob Lange, Partner at BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and Head of the BIG Ideas project unit

***

I see a profession that is completely different from the one we know today. Traditional practice is broken – I yearn to see solutions that we can’t even imagine today.

– Marc Kushner, Founder of Architizer & HWKN Architects

***

I think that the most important step is to just do it. It sounds bold but in the end you need to think about your business idea and how customers will use and pay for it. Finally, you need to implement it. Do not wait too long; make it a reality.

– Antje Kunze, Founder of SmartBetterCities

***

My advice to architects who want to start their own business is to put creativity at the heart of their activity, and to try to invent new things that can be really useful for other people.

– Filippo Schiano di Pepe, Founder of CoContest

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As architects, we like to think that successful projects come because we have a great idea. But a project’s success is actually down to risk management by a practicing and experienced developer.

– Roger Zogolovitch, Founder of Solidspace

***

Go for it. I think you just have to start small, and start with what you can do with your own hands and feet, and find a way to be innovative. I think the biggest trap that you can get into is borrowing a lot of money and then finding out that it doesn’t work.

– Matthew Griffin, Co-Founder of Deadline Architects

***

Follow your heart and do what you love to do. However, if it’s business you want then you need to learn to take care not only of yourself but also your customers.

– Qi Su, Co-Founder Modelo.io

***

Architects have to educate themselves a lot more in the areas of digitalization, programming, economics, and the invisible infrastructure of cities. It’s not enough to simply understand how a building is drawn and set up if you want to shape and think about the modern cities of tomorrow.

– Andreas Rauch, Co-Founder of CABIN SPACEY

***

What are your favorite quotes that inspire you?

The post 17 Inspirational Archipreneur Quotes that will Motivate You in 2017 appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with four architects from Zurich, Switzerland. The founding team of archilogic.com: Pascal Babey, Frederic Schwarz, Kaspar Helfrich & Tomas Polach.

The guys at Archilogic developed a technology to turn 2D floorplans into 3D models. I think it is a hugely important idea that could stand to revolutionize the way in which real estate and architectural projects are designed and presented. You can test their 3D app below in the post and fly through a model of the Farnsworth house.

Archilogic was created in 2014 as a spin off from the ETH, Zurich. They recently closed a $1.5 million round from angle investors in order to grow and scale their business. It will be very interesting to see where their innovative methods of communicating space will lead.

Here are Pascal’s, Frederic’s, Kaspar’s and Tomas’ thoughts on the intersection between architecture and technology, as well as how to build a business and his own view on the future of architecture.

I hope you enjoy his interview!

Please tell us a little bit about your startup, archilogic.com. What is the idea behind it and what services do you provide?

KH: We belief that a new kind of architecture comes of a new kind of communicating architecture. New medias, from the central perspective to photography to renderings, changed the way we thought about space. It is our goal to bring space to the web. This will then allow anybody to communicate and change the spaces he lives in. We strongly belief in the democratic power of the internet, a power that we want to bring to architecture.

PB: To reach this ambitious goals we develop tools that first of all are able to show a space in the internet, create the model of this space without prior knowledge and play with this model without CAD skills.

The funding for this journey is provided by investors but also by professional users that use our technology to communicate space. We have a wide variety of customers from architects, to property portals, brokers, developers, architecture blogs or just general media.

What made you decide to become an entrepreneur and found archilogic.com? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

KH: The four founders studied together and even during our studies it was always clear that we wanted to be independent. Before Archilogic we created AERO Architekten. We built furniture, galleries, houses and tried our luck in many competitions.

Then Tomas Polach, our old friend stopped by and showed us the first prototype of Archilogics technology. There is no such thing like a no-brainer, but it took us about two seconds to drop what ever we were working on and put all our energy in this project.

Tomas, also an architect, spent most of his time programming what is now the platform we belief might change the way space is communicated. He writes code since the age of nine and taught 3D software at ETH.

You and your co-founders also run the architecture office, AERO architects. Are you still practicing architecture, or is archilogic.com your main focus at the moment?

FS: We currently finish our last building. But our main focus is clearly Archilogic. A tech startup is not something you build part time. There are many things that are somehow similar to designing architecture. For example the fact, that you often have to think about very small and very big things at the same time and also that time is a huge factor.

But there are other things that are very new. While architecture is measured in years, technology is measured in microseconds. The high speed things develop in technology is a challenge and at the same time extremely rewarding.

What do you find the most fulfilling about your current job as a startup founder?

KH: I was drawn towards architecture because of the vastness of possible tasks in this field. Interestingly enough, founding a tech startup seems to create an even more diverse set of challenges. The time from design to impact is now reduced to days and the reach is more global than local. Still, the final question, if it all works out and if we made more right than wrong decisions remains.

TP: I would say that the most fulfilling aspect of our current endeavours (I wouldn’t call it a mere job) is the potential we are working with. But as always, there are two sides to this medal.

How much does your 2D to 3D modeling service normally cost?

PB: If you do it by yourselfs, it is for free. If we create your model we charge $0.55/m²

How do you plan to scale your business?

KH: We will enable other people to upload their own content onto our platform. We are will focus more and more on the publishing of content and enabling people to work with the models then on the production of the content.

Still we are trying to make it as fast, cheap and simple for people to get from a 2D floorplan to an awesome, web based, interactive, semantic 3D model.

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

KH: Studying architecture is just the greatest thing there is. The skills learned there are actually quite good for management. You learn to from a vision, present this vision or break it down to smaller tasks.

The knowledge about buildings, space, construction, typologies, history and representation of architecture are of huge value. I am not sure if a team that consists solely of programmers could teach a machine to understand architecture.

Do you have any advice for architects who are interested in starting their own business? How did you finance your startup idea?

TP: Just start! You will learn the rest on the road. Also, prototype a lot and ask everyone what they think about your work. As an architect you probably are used to get critique, you probably even rely on it.

There are many ways to finance a startup. Angel investors are great way to get your idea started. They give you enough wiggle room to form your idea. But the three f’s (friends, family, fools) can do that as well. As soon as you realise that it gets serious you should get a pro on board. Someone that really knows how to plan and control your finances. That’s definitely not something you learn at architecture school.

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

FS: Compared to other industries the construction industry is basically still pre-internet, pre computer even. We do things like they were done for hundreds of years, even if we do them on a computer. This gives much room for innovations or disruption.

User generated content and economies of sharing are a huge trend and built companies that are worth more than states. In architecture we know these practises since quite some time. Actually some of the most beautiful buildings ever created were not planned by architects but by ‘users’.

About the founders

The Archilogic founders studied together at the ETH in Zurich and started AERO architects after graduating from uni. In 2014 they founded archilogic.com and combind their knowledge in architecture with technology to bring the physical and the virtual world together.

The post A New Way of Presenting Space in the Internet with Archilogic appeared first on Archipreneur.