The digital revolution, which intensified the sharing of knowledge and experience, has helped architects realize that pursuing interests, inclinations and passions that diverge from mainstream architecture can be a viable career path. The availability of, for example, books on new business models for architects, or new communication channels, has made a huge impact on how young graduates see their role in the AEC industry.

The convergence of technologies has also made a strong impact on the industry, allowing new generations of professionals to explore innovative ways of designing, building, managing and communicating architecture. Young practitioners and graduates now have a wide array of career options which allows freedoms rarely enjoyed by previous generations. We have compiled a list of 7 alternative career paths for architects which give them the opportunity to operate in the AEC industry beyond solely providing architectural design services.

Top 7 Alternative Career Path Ideas for Architects

#1 Product Designer

Providing architectural services usually takes a lot of time and requires a kind of reinvention with each new client. Those who recognize the importance of streamlining their work have discovered that productizing design services can make the strongest impact on the success of their businesses. This process can take architects along different avenues, one of them being the creation of material products for the AEC industry. Grizzle and Jonathan Junker, founders of Greypants are great examples of architects successfully building a business based on products. The company produces pendant lights made entirely of repurposed corrugated cardboard, with an extensive portfolio including public artworks, architectural installations and several lines of lighting, furniture, packaging designs sold throughout the world.

#2 Tech-Founder

Another type of products architects can develop are digital products. These include e-books, online courses, as well as software and apps that can potentially revolutionize the AEC industry. There are numerous examples of architects creating successful SaaS (Software as a Service) companies and app startups, like Steven Burns, FAIA, developer of ArchiOffice, an office and project management software. Steven created the original version of the software to help run his own architectural firm and eventually joined BQE Software where he continued to develop the tool and where he currently works as Chief Creative Officer.

#3 Real-Estate Developer

It is common knowledge that architectural services account for a small percentage of a project’s total value. An increasing number of architects are interested in developing their projects from drawing board to building site, and shepherding the entire construction project themselves. This can be quite demanding and risky, but architects-turned-developers like Jonathan Segal are proof it can be done. Segal worked in several architecture firms before developing his first project at the age of twenty five. Today his company designs and builds all their projects, many among which have received numerous o accolades for their place-making and design qualities.

#4 Urban Entrepreneur

Architects can use their knowledge of design and construction to effectively develop entire urban areas for different uses. They have the background with allows them to study, research and foresee viable and sustainable urban development solutions that will benefit investors as well as local communities. This is a great way of combining the creative aspect of the discipline with a business sensibility. They can actively participate in innovating and developing their own communities and influence their socio-ecological aspects, and are often neighborhood-based civic entrepreneurs who organize civic crowdsourcing campaigns to solve local problems, introduce solutions like a local bike-sharing service, or develop waste to energy facility, for example.

#5 Graphic Designer

Architectural education, as flawed as it may be in terms of providing business knowledge, builds a high level of visual literacy in young graduates. They develop creative skills like drawing and photography which can make them excel in any type of visual communication of ideas and concepts. Graphic designers are often part of the advertising process in architecture. They create images, logos and diagrams that help potential clients to identify and remember projects and products.

#6 3D Visualization Artist

Most among the most successful 3D visualization artists are architects who decided to leave the design aspect of the profession and dedicate their time to its representation. The best Archviz artists understand both the creative and technical aspects of architectural projects, and can communicate the main concept of the design through often photo-realistic imagery. They can work for architecture studios and developers, as members of in-house 3D visualization teams or companies specialized in 3D rendering. Firms like DBOX evolved from creating exclusively 3D renderings to offering complete branding content, including images, brochures, posters and typography, for high-end residential and commercial projects.

#7 PR and Communications Specialist

As designers, architects have to communicate their ideas to professors at school, and later investors, clients, city officials and contractors. The communication skills can have a huge impact on how a specific project is perceived. This can become a great basis for a career in public relations and communications in architecture. This job requires establishing reliable and trusted relationships with press and media representatives, architects and many other players in the industry.

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What other alternative career jobs do you think architects would be good at?

The post 7 Alternative Career Paths for Architects appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Jeremy McLeod, Founder of Melbourne based company Breathe Architecture and the Nightingale Model.

Fed up with property developers, off-shore investors and low-quality, expensive housing, Jeremy and six other architects joined financial forces to develop their project The Commons. Its goal was to deliver livable, sustainable, and affordable apartments.

The Commons survived the recent financial crisis and a change in investment to become a success story. It became the prototype for the Nightingale Housing movement, a not-for-profit social enterprise that supports, promotes and advocates high-quality housing that is ecologically, socially and financially sustainable.

Today, Nightingale Housing has a number of houses in development, not only by Breathe Architecture but also by other architects who have been licensed the Nightingale model.

Keep on reading to learn from an architect who believes that collaboration can drive real and positive change in our cities.

Enjoy the interview!

Could you tell us a little about your background? What made you decide to found Breathe Architecture?

My parents were activists and I grew up in a family environment of protests. My parents moved around a lot so I went to lots of different schools. The things they taught me were, responsibility and the idea of sustainability.

I remember that my dad took me to the Old Parliament House in Canberra, which was 1,000 kilometers away. He took me there in a bus with a bunch of people to protest. We pitched a tent city on the lawn in front of Old Parliament House to protest around housing affordability in Melbourne back in the 1980s. So it’s ironic, right?

And then when I went to study architecture I studied an undergraduate in environmental design in Tasmania. Tasmania has this incredible nature and landscape. It’s very connected to the environment. Anyway, then I came to Melbourne with an architecture degree and an undergraduate in environmental design with a passion for sustainability, and I worked in a big practice in Melbourne. I worked there for four years under a great architect.

When I started at the practice, there were eight architects. It was a great studio environment. And when I left we were working on Melbourne’s – in fact the southern hemisphere’s – tallest residential building. The practice had grown to 50 architects. It seemed like the buildings we were doing were disconnected from nature or from the environment. The last project that I was working on in that practice was a car park for that building.

I left that practice and I started Breathe Architecture in 2001. And the reason it’s called Breathe Architecture and not Jeremy McLeod Architects was that that tower that I was working on had no windows that opened above level 30. So from level 30 to level 88 there were no windows that opened because the wind speed in Melbourne was so great that there was a fear from the wind engineer that it would suck furniture out of the building. So all of those apartments had to be cooled by air conditioning even though Melbourne has quite a temperate climate.

“So when I started Breathe Architecture the simple idea was that everything that I designed, everything that I worked on, needed to have a window that people could open so that they could breathe.”

Could you tell us about the beginning of the Nightingale Model?

As architects we gained knowledge along the way. We’d been frustrated dealing with property developers. Most of Melbourne… in fact, since the ’80s all the housing provisions in Melbourne are provided through the private market through property developers, building speculative developments generally for sale to investors.

85% of apartments in Melbourne are sold to investors, usually off-shore in Asia, so it leads to substandard design qualities. It’s a race to the bottom to build cheaply and to sell as expensive as possible. And we were quite frustrated and disillusioned with that. So in 2007 we built the prototype building for Nightingale called The Commons.

Melbourne, again, has a history of architectural activism. In the 1950s there was a group of Melbourne architects that ran a project called the Small Home Service, trying to deliver architecturally designed homes to the general population not just to the rich people.

In the 1970s there were two architects that established a company called Merchant Builders. Merchant Builders was about delivering design to a mass market, trying to improve the quality of design through mass-market building. But since the 70’s there has been not much movement from Melbourne architects.

When we started The Commons in 2007, I got together with six other architects, and we put together all of our money, borrowed against our houses, borrowed from other people and we raised about a million dollars. We started work on our own project.

It took us a very long time to complete The Commons, until 2013. It took us six years start to finish, because in the middle of that project there was the global financial crisis, which took our funding away from us. And so we had to change funding models halfway through and get funded by an impact investment group or an ethical funder called Small Giants. We finished that project in 2013 and in 2014, we started work on the first Nightingale project, which was the second iteration of The Commons.

We learned from The Commons and changed the financial model. Instead of having six architects, we had 25 ethical shareholders putting in $100,000 each, all borrowing against their homes. Melbournians that cared about the future of our city and the housing crisis facing our city currently, were happy to invest in a project that had a capped profit at 15%, a lot of risk associated with it, and some social return as well.

And looking back now, is the business model working out?

The reason that we decided to do this was out of necessity for our city, not because we wanted to take financial risk, not because we’re entrepreneurial by nature, but we thought it was necessary.

When we finished the 24 apartments of The Commons people liked it a lot. I think that it showed that there were people in Melbourne that wanted to live in something that was triple bottom line. Something that was livable, sustainable, and affordable. People started writing to us saying, “If you do another one of these can you let us know because we’d be interested in buying one.” When we finished The Commons we had 11 people on a waiting list to start work on the next project. The waiting list is now 2,300 something people.

We currently have 20 apartments buildings under construction. So there is lots of interest, there’s lots of demand, but we as a single practice can’t deliver on the needs of our city. So we established Nightingale Housing, which is a not-for-profit social enterprise.

The role of Nightingale housing is to share our intellectual property with other architects in Melbourne and other cities around the country to help them establish their own Nightingale projects and to help deliver the housing that people so desperately need here.

So we got corporate sponsorship. We raised about $500,000 from Cross Laminated Timber Suppliers, from sustainable appliance manufacturers. With that we could employ a CEO. We put together a skills based board. We employed a resource officer who could help other architects understand how to do the model. And then we put together a licensing committee. The chair of the licensing committee is the Victorian Government architect so the government pays her but she sits on our licensing committee making sure that only the best Australian architects can lead Nightingale projects.

Can every architect apply to work with the Nightingale model?

Yes, every architect can apply but not every architect gets a license, only the best ones do. And by the best I don’t mean the biggest. I mean the architects that have a proven history of doing quality work at any scale, that have a proven track record of not doing anything that they should be ashamed of, that have shown a commitment to either the profession of architecture or the broader community or society. So it’s a particular breed of architects that Nightingale Housing grants licenses to.

Further you created The Nightingale Night School. I read about a twelve-week semester during which students can learn about the philosophy and practice of the Nightingale Model. Who is the focus group of the school?

Ideally it would be to other Nightingale architects, but at the moment it has been run once to Masters of Architecture thesis students at Melbourne University second semester 2016. We plan to run it again this year and than hopefully every year.

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

I guess you have two choices:

You can sit there and wait for the phone to ring, for a property developer or someone with a lot of money to call you and ask you to build the project that you were born to do. Or you can take some financial risk and do the project that you were born to do.

And you would recommend the latter?

It totally depends on you. Some people just don’t have the stomach for it.

But our profession has been manipulated by property developers, project managers, real estate agents, marketing teams and lawyers in this country in the way that architects take all the risk but they receive very, very little of the financial reward associated with the project.

And often we’re asked to do things that we would be ashamed of. What good architects do is refuse the commission or resign the commission.

If you’re going to take all that risk to do a project that you’re not going to be proud of, wouldn’t you just take that risk and do the project that you will be proud of and that is beneficial to society and profession of architecture?

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 think that technology has changed everything. I think that as a profession we need to think of ourselves as more entrepreneurial, whether we’re driving our own projects or whether we’re doing product design or whether we’re communicating directly with the residents. I mean, if you think about Baugruppen projects [joint building venture projects], it’s about an architect driving a project from the ground up and attracting residents based on their reputation: who they are, what they’ve done before, and what they can bring to the project.

I think that the future for architects, it’s adapt, it’s evolve, or die. The choice is one of survival.

We need to be adapting with the times rather than clinging to a 19th century idea of an old Englishman sitting in his manor drawing his beautiful plans for his rich friends.

About Jeremy McLeod

Jeremy is the founding Director of Breathe Architecture, a team of dedicated architects that have built a reputation for delivering high quality design and sustainable architecture for all scale projects.

Breathe Architecture has been focusing on sustainable urbanisation and in particular have been investigating how to deliver more affordable urban housing to Melbournians.

Breathe were the instigators of The Commons housing project in Brunswick, Melbourne, and now are collaborating with other Melbourne Architects to deliver the Nightingale Model. Nightingale Model is intended to be an open source-housing model led by architects.

Jeremy believes that architects, through collaboration, can drive real positive change in this city we call home.

The post The Nightingale Model: A Collaborative Movement for Sustainable, Affordable Housing in the City appeared first on Archipreneur.

We recently spoke with Jim Zack, founder of Zack/de Vito Architecture + Construction, an expert in design/build development. His practice’s projects cover residential, restaurants and small commercial sites, but also takes on their own residential developments.

But vacant parcels of land that offer a clean slate for development are rarely available in San Francisco. Committed to finding opportunities to design and build in one of the most popular neighborhoods in the city, the development team of Zack/de Vito Architecture + Construction have proven that vision and creativity can address this challenge.

Inspired by a standard city RH-2 parcel with a modest cottage positioned at the back of the lot on the popular Church Street corridor, the development team recognized the potential. While lot coverage of this sort cannot be created on vacant land, this existing dwelling was ripe for change. The large flat front yard offered a footprint for a new structure. And by working imaginatively within the envelope of the existing structure, the designers could create two urban homes in the heart of the City.

In 2014 the team unveiled two of the most innovative modern dwelling designs in San Francisco. Two unique, freestanding condominiums share a single lot while maintaining their individual architectural identity. Maximizing the function of a 7.6-m/25-foot wide lot, both homes are accessed from a common courtyard, a deviation from the traditional street-front entry. The unapologetic modern design is planned for maximum spatial efficiency with unsurpassed attention to detail and craft, expressing handmade quality at every turn.

SteelHouse1

Occupying the front of the lot, a new, ground-up townhouse, with an impressive modern façade, stands out from the more traditional buildings along this urban corridor. Clad with Corten steel, fiber cement siding and stucco, this building encompasses two full floors of light-filled living space accommodating three bedrooms and two full baths.

The dramatic open floor plan is enhanced by clean lines and sophisticated modern finishes, including industrial structural steel complimented by warm oiled-oak floors and custom walnut cabinetry. The master bedroom boasts a private roof deck illuminated by its desirable western exposure. The ground floor includes one car parking and a private office space, nicely isolated from the main living levels.

SteelHouse2

Occupying the back of the lot, the fully renovated, two-story structure has been transformed to fit perfectly into this modern context. This building also encompasses two full floors of living space, with the entertaining spaces positioned at the top level.  The open floor plan is enhanced by extraordinary light with modern steel and wood details that visually connect the two floors.

This building accommodates two bedrooms and two full baths on the lower floor, with a third bedroom with en-suite bath at the upper, main living level. A private south-west-facing deck is directly accessed from both the kitchen and the upper bedroom at this level. Finishes include walnut stairs, oiled-oak flooring, custom rift-cut white oak cabinetry, and composite quartz counter-tops. One car parking is provided for this unit in the front building.

Both buildings incorporate green design which includes radiant floor heating that is zoned for efficiency; state-of-the-art thermal-rated windows; material selections that are driven by sustainability; and mechanical and structural systems that are ‘solar ready’.  The two modern buildings live like single-family homes, while offering a unique opportunity for an extended family or single owner to enjoy the entire compound.

Location:

Church Street, San Francisco, CA, USA

Project Data:

• Architect: Zack/de Vito Architecture
• Architects team: Jim Zack, Lise de Vito
• Client: Zack/de Vito Architecture
• Structural engineer: Don David
• Planning/Construction: 2012 – 2014
• Residential units: 2
• Storeys: 2 and 3
• Parkings: 2, one for each house
• Floor area of the lot: 232 sqm (2,500 SF)
• Net saleable/rentable area: House 1: 270 sqm (2,900 SF), House 2: 167 sqm (1,800 SF)

The post Steelhouse – Two Unit Property Designed, Developed and Built by Zack/de Vito appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with London based developer Gus Zogolovitch, founder of several companies in property development and beyond.

Gus started on his entrepreneurial career path after discovering a gap in the market – project management for refurbishment projects – and building a business offering those services. He ran this venture for a couple of years before joining his architect father, Roger Zogolovitch, to set up Solidspace, which aims to deliver design-led boutique, new-build projects on forgotten inner-city gap sites. (Read the interview with Roger Zogolovitch here)

Gus then started his own venture, Inhabit Homes, London’s first custom-build enabler, which helps people to build their own homes and also sells some of the most desirable new-builds in London. During my interview with Gus, I learned that he had founded two additional companies and that they all interact in the process of building homes.

Continue reading to learn from a self-trained independent developer and to discover his take on the role of architecture today.

Enjoy the interview!

Could you tell us a little about your background? How did you start your career?

I was born and brought up in London, but I had travelled a lot both before and after I went to university. I also lived abroad during my studies.

I started my career in the City of London in investment banking, more by accident than by design. Basically, I had been living with a friend of mine who had to get up really early every day. He got really upset that I could sleep in every day so he got me a job in the City, so that I’d have to wake up early too!

I joined CS First Boston as an intern, working for a guy who later went to work at Goldman Sachs and took me with him. So in answer to your question how did I start my career, it was basically luck. At university, I studied mathematics and philosophy, so I had a good general knowledge but no specific knowledge.

And how did you get into property development?

I left Goldman Sachs and traveled around the world for two years. I did various things, even worked in Australia for a bit. When I came back to London I decided to try and get my house refurbished. I had a very bad experience trying to get builders. Since I didn’t have a job I decided to do it myself and take on the role of ‘project manager’.

It was a disaster! I employed some builders who then walked out on the job halfway through and so I then had to find some other builders who would finish what had been started.

But I realized that that was quite an interesting opportunity. I thought that maybe I could help other people who needed management for the refurbishment of their homes. The idea sounded much more appealing than a nine-to-five.

Seeing that gap in the market I set up my first company. My idea was, rather than paying a fixed price for a refurbishment job, why not pay the price of what it’s going to cost for each day of work and then pay a fee for my services in managing builders and making sure they’re doing what they should be doing. If it takes fewer days than scheduled, the client will save money. If it takes as much time as is scheduled, the client will not save money but can be assured the builders have turned up and completed the work.

I tried running that business for a couple of years. In the meantime, my father had been working on a residential development. I came in at the end to help him with some bits and pieces. And then he wanted me to help him with his website and stuff like that. So I did, and from then on I started doing more for his business. My refurbishment business started to decrease in size and so I ended up working full time for my father.

After a couple of years, we decided to become partners. We looked around, found some sites, bought them and developed them. One of these sites ended up being my house!

Did your experience from your work at Goldman Sachs help you to work with property development?

I suppose it gives you a head for numbers. That was very helpful because I think there are a lot of people in property development who can’t quite get their head around the numbers. They’ve probably been lucky because the markets did go up but they don’t always go up. For that reason, understanding the numbers and the finance is quite handy.

What is your role at Solidspace?

Today I’m just a director. I don’t have any active management in Solidspace. I am just there for board meetings.

That explains why you have time to work for your current company, Inhabit Homes. What is your business model for Inhabit Homes?

It has a few business streams. But the core of the business model is to build high quality, design led homes that are more affordable than some of the homes we built when I was working for Solidspace.

We built some lovely homes at Solidspace, but the reality is they are a premium product. That is almost inevitable as my experience is that good design costs more money. Whatever architects tell you, it is hard to avoid that. So what we do is build watertight structural shells that the owner can then fit out themself.

There are a couple of benefits to this:

First, it is cheaper for customers to fit out than it is for us because we have to include all the management costs, interest costs and the developer profit.

Second, they can choose what they want and how they want it. Rather than having us choose the colours and tiles for their kitchen they want, they can do it themselves. They can spend as much or as little time as they want.

Third, the owner has flexibility in the layout. If you sell someone a 1,000-square foot, they can decide for themselves whether they want three small bedrooms or two large bedrooms.

From our perspective, the benefit is that we get out of the project quicker and can move on to the next project. It also means we don’t have to deal with all the snags in a project that take up a lot of management time when doing a fit out.

At Inhabit Homes, do you employ architects or is architecture a commodity into which you buy?

We don’t employ architects within our company; we outsource the architecture. We do that at Solidspace as well. We like to bring in architects to do the job well and keep everything fresh and the design good. I also think it gives architects an opportunity to do interesting work. I’m a big believer in partnerships. I think of my partnership with an architect as similar to that of a movie director and movie producer. I am the producer and the architect is the director.

How do you carry out market research, and how do you find locations for your projects?

Land is very difficult to get in London so you can’t be that fussy. It’s generally gut instinct but it’s also massively influenced by the price of the land, our financial resources and where our customer base is. We have quite a lot of information on our customers and where they want to be, and we get a good sense of the kind of customer that likes our product. So obviously we try to build in those places.

At the moment, we tend to look in London but we’re also thinking about places outside London for the near future. For now, we’re busy trying to get our first projects off the ground in London.

Do Solidspace and Inhabit Homes ever interact?

Solidspace and Inhabit do quite a lot of work together. For example, Solidspace is building a very nice development not far away from Inhabit Homes’ office near London Bridge. Inhabit Homes is doing the marketing and sales for Solidspace. We are acting as their sales agency on that project because I think we have a very personal relationship with customers. When it comes to nicely designed products, people say, “I don’t want just a basic estate agent to sell it like they would sell any other products. They’ve got to be someone who knows what they’re talking about, someone who understands design and architecture.”

We’re collaborating with Solidspace but also with other clients. Right now, we are working on a project that was just launched in Holland Park, London, by Peter Salter. We are doing marketing and sales for that too.

Our core activity has been in acting as custom build developers, although I’m very interested to see whether or not we can bring Baugruppen (co-housing projects) to London.

Co-housing doesn’t yet exist in London?

No. The financing isn’t really there. Well, they do exist in some slightly strange forms but there are certainly very few of them and they certainly do not have any commercial perspective.

I found yet another company with your name on it: Crowdestates. When did you establish it and what was your goal for this business?

I’m involved with a couple of companies outside traditional property development. Crowdestates is a peer-to-peer lender, a little like crowdfunding for development finance. Small developers need access to finance and what they can borrow at the bank is quite expensive, up to 9% interest a year. The idea behind Crowdestates is to lend money collectively to small property developers at a lower interest rate than the bank.

And is Crowdestates also interacting with Inhabit Homes?

We’re still going through the regulatory authorisation process with Crowdestates. But yes, that is the intention. One of my grander visions is to create a company that does everything from beginning to end.

Another company of mine is called Patch Partners, which sources land opportunities. We train and support people to find development sites, to find old buildings that can be refurbished, or to discover a piece of ground on which to build houses. They go out and find these things themselves and we connect them with developers or investors to get the project up and going.

The vision is to work vertically, Sourcing opportunities through Patch Partners, financing them through Crowdestates, building and selling by Inhabit Homes.

I see! When I was doing my research and found all these companies you own, it made me wonder if you have more days in the week than the average person…

The companies are all connected. A lot of people say, “Don’t work for more than one company.” But I think, why not?

The market is different from how it was when you first started. How would you advise a fresh architecture graduate today on getting his first project off the ground? Any tips on how to manage it?

I think we’re living in amazing times. If you look at the costs of housing and land, they’re ridiculously high. But on the flipside, the costs of connecting and transparency are very low. For that reason, I think there’s never been a better time to create things like Baugruppen (co-housing projects) where communities can come together to buy developments.

I think that we’re going to see more and more of that because why should big companies be the ones buying the land?

Why not get ten of your friends and buy a bit of land together? Through the power of digital technology, you have the power to bring strangers together.

You don’t have to rely on your own networks. It has become much easier to network and to do radical things.

In a way, the barrier to entry into the market is higher because you need more money to buy land. But arguably the ability to find experts is much easier and comes at a lower cost. In the past, what were you going to do? How would you have found an air quality assessor? Now all you need to do is google them, right? In the past, it was a really painful process.

It is all about connectivity and ensuring that you think big when connecting with others.

You have worked a lot with architects. What do you think would help their profession?

I never trained as an architect. But what I see is that there are quite a lot of architects who are very impractical in terms of actually knowing how buildings are put together. Architecture is not just about the design process but also really understanding how a building is structured, for example, knowing what heavy rain or wind would do to it. That’s why I love it when I see architects who have built their own homes and have actually gone through the building process at least once.

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

Don’t be afraid. The key is to realise that there are always going to be risks and there will always be reasons to say no. But you have got to step into the unknown and try it or nothing will change.

Also, believe in yourself and be nimble. Read a lot, speak to a lot of people, and develop your network. There’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t succeed. This goes back to my earlier point. We live in a world where 24-year-olds can be billionaires. With the digital world, you don’t need to have been around for 60 years before you launch your first invention. You can just get on and do it. No one is stopping you.

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 architects and developers?

I think architects should think of themselves as collaborators rather than as passively waiting for commissions.

They need to think about their role in the process. They’ve got to go out and find opportunities, and get developers to partner with them and say, “Okay, how can we do this together?”

It’s a bit like my director and producer analogy. When a movie is at the beginning of development, producers, directors and writers will sometimes pitch to the studio together. It’s about building a team around an idea, and that doesn’t always have to come from one side. It can come from the architect who has recognized their role in the process.

I think architects will always be needed because they add a great deal of value, especially in terms of the products. But I think that these days, even if you’re in a practice,

you should be thinking about how you can be entrepreneurial and how you can do things differently.

About Gus Zogolovitch

Gus started his career at Goldman Sachs in London where he was an equity analyst before he set up his first property specialising in residential projects. He ran this venture for a couple of years alone before he joined his architect father, Roger, and set up Solidspace with the aim to deliver design-led boutique new-build projects on forgotten inner city gap sites. He pioneered the Solidspace split-level model by building his own house in north west London where he still lives today.

Gus has most recently started his own venture, Inhabit Homes, which acts as London’s first custom-build enabler, helping people build their own Grand Designs while also selling some of the most desirable new-builds in London. 

The post Investment Banking, Gap Site Development and Building New Homes – an Interview with Gus Zogolovitch appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Jim Zack, founder of the architecture and construction company Zack/de Vito based in San Francisco.

Prior to studying architecture, Jim was a carpenter and a builder. He carried out his first design/build development with his father when he was 23 years old.

He then opened his own practice after grad school. Having always been a hand-on kind of guy, Jim quickly became an expert in design/build development. His practice’s projects cover residential, restaurants and small commercial sites, and Jim also takes on his own residential developments.

Jim now has 25 years of experience as an architect and 40 years as a builder behind him. We were eager to ask him about his career decisions, how his business model changed over the years, and his take on real estate development.

Enjoy the interview!

What made you decide to found Zack/de Vito? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

I have always been very independent and self-motivated, a leader, not a follower. I was never a ‘good employee,’ preferring to forge my own path since I was quite young. I had my own small construction company when I was 20. I started my own office right out of graduate school, it was not a ‘decision’, it is just what I did.

I rented a studio with some friends to have a place to work and build things. I spent about one month looking for a job. The second interview I had was for a young architect I knew. Instead of offering me a job, he asked me if I could build a custom table for an office. It was my first commission. I never looked back after that.

I was an obsessive maker, I had to build things.

In addition to my independent streak, I was an obsessive maker, I had to build things. I set up a small workshop and started fabricating objects for other architects.

What is your firm’s core specialism?

Over the years we have done a variety of projects but the mainstays of our work are custom, modern residential, and restaurants. We do an occasional commercial project, offices, stores, etc., and a few private educational projects, but these days 75% is high end, modern houses, small multi-unit or mixed use and restaurants.

Our ideal project is a new one- or two-unit urban building where we can do both design and construction, and a client who appreciates modern design and a high level of craft.

Your company has now been in operation for 25 years. Did you have to adjust your business strategies over the years?

Yes and no. On the one hand, I feel we do more or less the same thing as usual, but of course we adapt to the times: more digital, more sophisticated clients, higher budgets, etc.

One thing that never seems to change is that we are bad at marketing; we never do enough so we always seem to need more work even when we are busy. Based on my conversations with colleagues, we are not alone in this!

Looking back, what was the best decision you made for your practice?

It would have to be to embrace design/build on our own terms, doing what we know, and to trust our business instincts. For 10 years, I fought the idea of doing construction work; I wanted to be a cool, mod designer, not get my hands dirty. Perhaps in the early 90s design/build was not cool like it is now. I tried to stop building a few times and fortunately failed in that effort, and now we embrace design/build 100%.

An equally important decision was to have my wife, Lise de Vito, quit her job and join my firm as a partner. Working and having a family has been easier and more successful because of her involvement.

You told us that you carried out your first design/build development with your father when you were only 23 years old, even before you went to architecture school. What did you learn from it?

Design matters!! These were terrible houses, but it did give me insight into the whole idea of building and selling.

What are you working on right now?

We bought a rare vacant lot in a good neighborhood of San Francisco. It is zoned for two units, and instead of two flats we got a variance to have two detached structures on one lot, a 2,900 sq ft house at the street, and a smaller 1,800 sq ft house in the rear yard. We are at the tail end of a two-year permit process and will break ground in the spring, then sell them as condos.

For clients, we have a couple of smaller residential renovations, then a series of smaller multi-unit and mixed-use projects – 2 units, 3 units, 4 and 5 units and one that is 9 units. We also have an over-the-top wine country estate, a great new, modern house and guesthouse on top of a hill in the Napa Valley. It will be finished in 2017. We just finished an office for some friends who are landscape architects, and we have a couple of restaurants. About half of these projects are design/build.

What is your strategy to find new sites and to get a project of the ground?

I am always looking at local real estate; I get feeds form a couple of realtors and know most of what is available. I guess I am a real estate geek, always looking for opportunities. We have a client who bought the site next to the one we were working on and negotiated a deal to be a 1/3 partner in the second project, five units over commercial. We are open to creative partnerships but we are also cautious; you have to have projects work out when you share them.

For architects who know very little about real estate development, how would you break down the process of getting the first project off the ground?

A tried and true approach is to buy something you can invest and live in, maybe a duplex, but something you can put ‘sweat equity’ into. Lack of financing also seems to be a hurdle but the money is out there if you can cultivate those connections. Loans are easier to get but you still need your 20% equity.

In a stable real estate market maybe try and get the seller to finance the land sale. This does not work on my area; land is scarce and there are multiple buyers for any opportunity. There are also crowdsource web sites like realtyshares.com where you can raise capital.

All architects know how to manage a project, so making the leap to managing everything is not that hard.

Also, learn about real estate, financing, loans, and of course construction. All architects know how to manage a project, so making the leap to managing everything is not that hard.

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

Understand your own comfort level for risk. There is no doubt that working for other people on their projects and their money is easy and safe. Development is not for the faint of heart. If you are a low-risk tolerance person, development may not be for you. Entrepreneurs are by definition risk takers.

As far as starting out on your own – do it when you are young and can afford to lose, or wait to know the ropes and can cultivate clients.

As far as starting out on your own – do it when you are young and can afford to lose, or wait to know the ropes and can cultivate clients. I had a unique background that gave me the confidence to go at it alone early on. Many people just do not have the experience.

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 think there are huge opportunities in figuring out how to weave technology and architecture. I am not sure how, but I do think there are new ideas waiting to be cultivated.

I recently met a young architect who had just launched a platform to quickly and affordably allow architects to set up a new website. No out of pocket costs; use his templates and pay a monthly fee. He is rolling out features specific to how architects need to market. As an architect, he knows how to do this; a tech-focused person might not get it. Check it out here: monograph.io

I also see more clients who appreciate our one-stop shop. We can do more, not necessarily for less, but for less hassle. We can design, build, do interiors, help on branding, design furniture, etc.

About Jim Zack

Jim Zack is a California native and the founding principal of Zack/de Vito Architecture + Construction. He has been practicing architecture since 1991 and building since 1977.

His professional experience covers a diverse range of project types with an emphasis on modern residences and restaurants. Prior to studying architecture Jim was a journeyman carpenter and contractor in his hometown of Carmel, designing and building his first residential development when he was 23. The current emphasis of his firm is on completing well crafted, design focused design/build projects.

Jim received both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley and is a California licensed architect and contractor. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and partner, Lise de Vito, and their two kids. When not designing and building, you can often find him on two wheels – cycling or racing motorcycles.

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