By Neil Turner, Director, Howarth Litchfield
We live in fascinating times; socially, politically and economically. How this manifests itself and affects the architecture world and the construction industry is equally interesting.
I often chat and listen to the younger team members at HL and their views and concerns on life. The subjects range hugely together with the strength of opinions. The younger generation is often portrayed as not ambitious or wanting to work hard.
We don’t find this true and it’s simply too general: we have terrific younger staff, full of ‘get up and go’. But the younger generation do look at life through a different lens and we have to understand the difference.
The architecture world is reflective of differentiated generational developments with an increasing reliance on technology in the use of drawing, cost and calculations for projects.
Now, while I am not the oldest in the practice, thankfully, I do have colleagues who remember the introduction of the fax machine, and its demise. I can remember the first PC and the first emails arriving. Try to explain to staff about life before emails, mobile phones – it’s interesting!
So, you may wonder where my ramble is going this month.
Well, despite all the changes in technology and the political changes or social/moral lines being moved (or altered for us), the profession still needs to operate to the same key objectives.
Architecture is a service industry and our success, or failure, is down to how we listen, operate and deliver.
We have the ability to see one another and chat on line but never under estimate the benefit of having a real client meeting to listen, chat and discuss a building project – face-to-face. The energy and committed problem solving of a real site meeting can’t be replicated on line. We remain more focused and intent when not staring through a portal – I am sure everyone has experience watching people do other things on line.
Our profession needs the skills, flair and being up to date on regulations, technology and products – never more so in a postGrenfell world. But a good architect needs to care and wants to find solutions that transcend generations and ages.
Throughout my career I have seen trends come and go and materials fall out of favour only to be replaced by a current ‘new system’ that is going to take over, yet at the heart of the profession, is knowledge and experience, which cannot simply be reproduced using the F2 button on the key board.
Like all businesses we respond, change and grow to reflect wider society and how society wants to see itself. We embrace the social media world and the instant ability to announce progress. We constantly invest to be up to date in training and hardware.
At the heart of our work, we still want to create great designs that are timeless and fit for purpose and we want our clients to be content and proud of their decisions to develop.
I will never stop enjoying the moment a building is open for business, a surgery opening its doors to patients or a factory ready to produce.
Yes, life moves on and alters – but the key values remain timeless.
Neil Turner, Director, Howarth Litchfield can be contacted on 0191 3849470 or email n.turner@hlpuk.com
www.howarthlitchfield.com
