The Facts of Life (for architects) #1

A long overdue post continuing the series on ‘The Things they don’t teach at architect’s school’:

In case you’ve missed them, here are the previous posts:

Most projects don’t go ahead

Architecture is War!

The architect is translator/interpreter

The architect as actor

Install trust

Don’t be too helpful

Cashflow is King

So what’s this one?

Sometimes, some projects just go bad

If you find an architect that says he’s never had a project go bad then he/she is lying. Sometimes, for whatever reason, a project just doesn’t go right. I’ve been on both sides of the fence, architects have taken over my jobs and I have taken over other architects jobs. I’ve seen all manner of sub-contractors such as window suppliers go spectacularly wrong and in my work as an expert witness I’ve seen contractors make a real mess of things.

What can the architect do if things are going bad? You have to deal with it. Front up, say you made a mistake, be professional and just get it sorted. Anyone can make a mistake, no one is infallible and it’s your job to make amends and to solve the problem.

There, brave to say and look forward to some comments…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.