Business of Architecture UK Podcast

This week, I'm speaking with Rodrigo Moreno Masey, Founder and Director of Moreno Masey Architecture Studio. Rod is a qualified architect and a member of the RIBA and ARB. He has worked on a wide range of projects, specialising in residential developments, private houses, concept and boutique restaurants, office spaces, bars, and hotels. Graduating from Bartlett in 1999, he cut his teeth in West London at high-end bespoke residential firm, Michaelis Boyd before setting out on his own in 2007. In this episode, Rod walks us through the firm's inception, the growing pains, their team development and client acquisition strategies, and their shift to a more systematic approach in designing journeys for their projects, clients, and teams. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call Rod's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodmorenomasey/ Moreno Masey: https://morenomasey.com/

This week, I'm speaking with Doug Johnson, Director and Founder of Mesh Energy, an independent renewable energy consultant firm aiming to radically improve the chances of sustainable building project success. Doug is the first "Meshling," a chartered mechanical engineer, author, and has over a decade of experience in the sustainable design and delivery of low-energy buildings. Having initially started in the high-end bespoke home market, Doug's experience now covers projects from £250K to £20M across a wide range of building sectors. In this episode, we discuss the services Mesh Energy offers and how they contribute and enhance the architectural vision. We also discuss the future of sustainable design and how an integrated approach can keep risks down and make for a more robust and effective implementation. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call Doug's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougjohnsonuk Mesh Energy: https://www.mesh-energy.com/

This week, we welcome back Sue Austin of Sue Austin Consulting and Juliette Mitchell of Architypal. Sue has 30 years of senior and director-level experience in large and small scale organizations and, for the last five years, has worked exclusively with owners of architecture practices and design studios, helping to address the complex challenges of running a business. Juliette runs a writing consultancy for architects, helping architects find their voice and tell better stories by guiding them through the writing process and unlocking the power of words not just for marketing but also in articulating their vision. In this episode, we discuss the discovery process in developing your vision, the role of a strong story and narrative in the goal-setting process, defining the culture and purpose of your business through your values, and some strategies or tactics that can help bring these values to life. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call Sue's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sueaustin/ Sue Austin Consulting: http://austin-consulting.co.uk/ Juliette's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliette-mitchell-67289410a/ Architypal: https://www.architypal.co.uk/

This week, I'm speaking with Stefanie Sword-Williams, self-promotion expert, author, and Founder of the global movement, F*ck Being Humble. Stefanie spent 7 years working in advertising, becoming an expert in storytelling before writing the book and starting the movement F*ck Being Humble as a way to teach and encourage people to tell their own stories and change how the world views self-promotion. Originally started a side hustle, F*ck Being Humble is now a global consultancy, online community, helping thousands of people around the world with communicating their worth, selling themselves, securing their careers, and launching businesses. Following its success and impact, F*ck Being Humble has delivered talks to clients such as Google, Warner Music, Unilever, ASOS, The Guardian, The BBC, etc, and has attracted considerable media coverage. Stefanie was also named as Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2020 and nominated by The Dots as one of the 100 women who are changing the creative industry. In this episode, Stefanie and I discuss how F*ck Being Humble began and what it aims to achieve, the cultural and environmental factors that cause us to shy away from self-promoting despite the pressure and desire for our work to be seen, and some of the ways for us to recognize, demonstrate, and celebrate ourselves and what we bring to the table. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call Stefanie's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanieswordwilliams/ Know more about F*ck Being Humble here: https://www.fuckbeinghumble.com/

This week, I'm speaking with Viviano Villarreal, the Founder of the architecture and design studio of Mass Operations with offices in Hong Kong and Mexico. Graduating from Tec de Monterrey in Mexico with a degree in architecture and a Masters in Design Theory and Pedagogy from SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, Viviano has had quite a bit of a journey, career-wise and geographically, traveling the world while working and collaborating with diverse architecture firms within the USA, Mexico, Chile, The Netherlands, Denmark, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong. And prior to establishing Mass Operations, Viviano worked for the Dutch firm OMA from their Hong Kong branch office. Viviano is also in academia, having been an under-grad professor of Architecture at the Taller Vertical workshops with Architect Agustin Landa in Tec de Monterrey as well as a repeat guest lecturer at ITESM and UDEM Universities. In Hong Kong, Viviano has been a repeat guest critic at student reviews for both HKU and CUHK Universities. In this episode, Vivano gives us a bit of a background on his experience at OMA and how his role began to shift and evolve from design into business development, then diving into the founding of Mass Operations. We also look a bit into his academic pursuits, how he and his company has been adapting to the Covid. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call Viviano's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianov Know more about Mass Operations here: http://www.massoperations.com/

This week, we have Dave Sharp of Vanity Projects, one of the gurus of marketing for architects. He's got a Master's degree in architecture so he understands the thinking and the mindset of architectural practices. He is a lover of all things social media, digital marketing, strategies. In this conversation, we get really tactical. We go into a number of different ways of how architects can be generating referrals, how they can be powerfully using social media, paid-for-advertising, and really be able to increase the number of referrals that you're going to be getting in your practice. We discuss some of the problems that architects typically face with marketing, some of their obstacles, challenges, and some of the mindsets as well that often keep us from fully engaging with the marketing side of our business. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call Dave's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-sharp-62262235/ Know more about Vanity Projects here: https://vanityprojects.com/

This week, I'm talking to Baranowitz + Kronenberg, an architecture and interior design firm of Irene Kronenberg and Alon Baranowitz based in both Amsterdam and Tel-Aviv. For the last 20 years, they've developed an incredible portfolio of hotels, restaurants, public and commercial spaces that have been very popular with their target demographic. Alon had studied at the Pratt Institute in New York prior to setting up the firm. Irene had graduated from the Technion School of Interior Design in Tel-Aviv in 1981. In this interview, they talk about how the partnership formed, how they successfully navigate being a husband and wife partnership as well as partners in business, which I know many architecture and design firms have that husband and wife relationship. It can be a really powerful frame and connection and a way of doing business, as well as a unique set of obstacles and challenges. They discuss how they develop long-lasting relationships with clients, how they are winning work in those early days, and many of the philosophies and strategies that they have developed in running a profitable and successful design company. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call Alon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alon-baranowitz-52ba4160/ Irene's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irene-kronenberg-b75241103/ Know more about Baranowitz + Kronenberg: https://www.baranowitzkronenberg.com/

This week, I am speaking to Stephen Drew founder of Architecture Social, an online platform filled with fabulous content, resources, and tools to help young architects (and old architects) find new jobs and stand out from the crowd. In this episode, Stephen discusses how he came up with the idea and how he has been nurturing that platform. Stephen is a trained architect. He has a degree in architecture and his Part II from the Manchester School of Architecture. He then worked in practice for a while but found himself moving towards the recruitment consultant world, something more fitting to his personality. He documents, in this conversation, how that transition occurred and what his current positions have been. Today, he is the Head of Talent at Ackroyd Lowrie, and he is involved in helping architecture practices find the best talent possible. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Join Architecture Social's community: https://www.architecturesocial.com/ Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call Stephen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-drew/ Know more about Ackroyd Lowrie: https://www.ackroydlowrie.com/

This week, I spoke to James Tait who is an architect, an author, and an educator. James was the winner of the internationally-renowned RIBA and RIAS Silver Medals in 2008. Since then, he's gained considerable experience as an architect, leading a broad spectrum of high-profile projects at some of the best practices in the UK. James is the author of a new book called "Entering Architectural Practice," which is published by Routledge. He's also authored another book called the "Architecture Concept Book," which was published by Thames & Hudson. In this episode, we focus on the themes that were emerging from Entering Architectural Practice. We discuss the growing gap between education and practice, and what universities can be doing to bridge that gap better. We also look at the roles and responsibilities of how practice can be bridging that gap back to university, making architecture education more valuable and more integrated into what you do as a professional. There were also a lot of very interesting topics that came up. We talk about some of the working conditions that young architects face and some of the root causes of that. We look at the fees of architects and why that has an impact on the working conditions as well. We also take a step back and look at the saturation of the architectural industry. We ask the question, "Are there too many architects?" If that's the case, "What types of things could and should we do about it?" And "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" James is quite brilliant at being able to paint a multi-perspective argument around these issues facing the industry at the moment. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Grab your copy of "Entering Architectural Practice" through this link: https://www.routledge.com/Entering-Architectural-Practice/Tait/p/book/9780367365141 Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call James' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-tait-b82b748b/ To find out more about James' work go to: https://www.jtait.com/

This week, I'm speaking to Shevaughn Rieck who is one of the partners at Farrells. Shevaughn started her career at Farrells as Part I and is now one of four partners who are delivering the succession plan of the world-famous practice. Shevaughn goes into a lot of detail about how her career has been nurtured at Farrells. She talks about the story of becoming a partner and that career path. She talks about the future of Farrells, how they're moving and changing their brand. They've been, for a long time, known as a master-planning company, and, actually, the work that they do is far-reaching into many different project typologies and sectors. She talks about the new stewardship. We discuss the connection between the profession and education, and Farrells role in that and how they nurture long-term relationships with team members, and how they attract talent. We discuss how Farrells win work and organize marketing strategies and the importance of site experience for developing a career. We get a lot of insights into the inner workings of one of the UK's most seminal practices. THIS WEEK'S RESOURCES Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call Shevaughn's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shevaughn-rieck-b4574752/ Farrells: http://www.farrells.com/