The Congress of Residential Architecture

No - thats not it. I think we'll all survive in one way or another. The idea of a "New Business Model" is to find a way to reach the people who do not use architectural services at all. People who buy crappy stock plans, builders who hire draftsman - all the solely price driven. The point is we need to compete on that price level - better product at the same price. We need to make it a no-brainer for everybody to choose better design.

The obstacle is us. We don't give away good design cheap. Good design takes time, it takes many sheets of drawings, it takes communing with our client to learn exactly what they need and want. This is where we need a "New Business Model". We have to think about what is a good PRODUCT, and how to offer it where it will reach the larger market. Just because its a product does not mean its any easier to design - this is another mental block we have to get over. We always see "The Product" as a step down in design quality. That could not be the furthest from the truth. But its one step removed from the way we usually approach design. You need to have an out of body design experience in order to design a product appropriately.

Our compulsion is to always put the most we can into a design. Thats whey ideally its expensive, takes a lot of work, and a lot of sheets. But the result of that process is wholly inappropriate as a product. Some builder in the midwest does not want 50 sheets for a 2000 sqft house. They don't want the most innovative new construction system on the market, or even worst that you just dreamed up. They want something they can build from the parts you get at the local lumber yard. So part of the design problem here is that you can't make the design TOO detailed. You can't spec every last item, You can't make such specific solutions that it limits the appeal to a narrow segment of the market. You need to be outside yourself when you design a house as a product - because ultimately you are not designing a house, you are designing a product.

You can't design a product without knowing who its for, how they will find it, who will sell it to them, what is the chain of distribution - this is a whole new business structure. We need to think about how to get design from our heads to peoples hands. I don't know how to say it any more clearly, I've been saying here for years now. I wonder if anybody will ever listen, even just think about it, a little. Why should you - I mean who the hell am I. Some guy with a not so successful practice who presumes to tell us he has the answer to our situation. Well, I don't have the answer, but at least I have the problem - and its not edu-f*cking-cation.

And that's the last time I'm giving that speech around here without getting paid for it - there's a business model for you.

I think I'd prefer to do 20 5k jobs over the single 100k job and yes, I've done both. Meeting and having known 19 more people has value beyond money. Sure, they probably don't know anybody in the 100k world, but they add real value to your life. No wonder I'm starving!

I'm working on a proposal for an art installation right now - nice change of pace and probably not any more profitable.

We can all do abbreviated CDs.
When this happens the purists complain that we are leaving too much up to the contractors.
The market right now does not favor reams of paper as the competition is already too much.
Clients are looking at price points. If two firms' work looks pretty similar, they will go with the least expensive services.

Leaving more up to the contractors is what the contractors want, for the most part. 5k should not get anybody 50 sheets of drawings. Part of designing an appropriate product is putting the right amount of info in it. And its also to defend traditional services - you should not provide a level of detail equal to traditional services within the context of a product. If a customer wants 50 sheets they have to hire somebody for those extensive and personal services to create them.

Then we can all agree one way to meet mass marketing objectives and profitability is to reduce content of construction sets.
The thing is that 'permit sets' --minimum info to obtain a building permit-- around here have been in vogue for over 20 years!! competition amongst all design professionals is unrelenting....

yes, well "pricing sets" is not a New Business Model. We have to think a little bit harder.

John, I'm not talking about remodels or additions. That's a totally different issue. This would be a new home to new home comparison. For me, the thrill is in developing the plan solution, the agony is debating the infinite possibilities in the details. Much better for me to do the 20 designs rather than work the one to death, but that's what makes a horse race.

Where Greg was worried about all the extra administrative and printing costs for each new client, that's where being clever and leveraging comes in. At some point we have to start acting like the doctors and dentists who manage their time much more effectively than the typical designer or architect. Waiting rooms, separate exam rooms, billing stations on the way out. (do you have your design insurance information ready?) I'm a bit tongue in cheek here, but I think my point is valid. It was a lot nicer when the Doc came to your house, but those days are over.

Well let's see:


Waiting rooms:
Seeing your client for the first time.
Separate exam rooms:
Going over the design parameters, doing the schematics, give and take on both sides.
You forgot one - the Doctor's visit:
Finalize the design, coordinate with the builders and other subs.
Billing stations:
Turning over the CD to the clients, get paid, overseeing the construction.

How was that?

I have often cited physicians as the opposite business model to ours.
A pediatrician or dentist for example gets multiple repeat visits and has hundreds of patient visits a week which adds up to a tidy sum.
We have one off clients typically unless they come back to you years later for a remodel.
EXTREMELY difficult model to sell one offs.
Even Bentley and Ferrari dealers can count on the same customer putting down hundreds of thousands year after year.
Doctors can do their work in one visti. It takes months to get our work done.
Then we have continued liability for several years.
And you want to sell services cheap??!!

Here's a possible result of "not changing your business model"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/garde ... tects.html

no business model is going to save our industry.
we are simply NOT NEEDED at this time.

it's not about costs or fees or project delivery or any other clever baloney; clients simply cannot borrow money to pay for construction.

That is a lot of it currently but this will pass. Competition on the other hand is here to stay.

The question for me is not can you survive on $5000 because I have never received 5000 to design a house. My problem is that I only get enough work to keep me busy part time. There are so many people out there designing houses and offering plans that the work is divided into smaller portions and when jobs get scarce all the builders start thinking of providing design services as well which helps them lock customers in.