Below is the list of top challenged faced by architects and architecture firms.
1. Finding New Clients
There is a global change and the architects are also suffering from this. The businesses are seeing decline in the clients and projects. Architecture firms are not getting enough clients to keep their business running. That is probably due to increasing number of architects and less demand in the market. The governments are doing nothing to engage the architects in public sector so they are forced to open their companies.
2. Good Design Issues
The architects can do very good and standard designs but they are not paid accordingly. So when they come up with designs as per the clients’ budgets, the clients are not satisfied. This is a problem in small level firms where new architects are working. They don’t have good communication skills to communicate with the clients and convince them. The top successful architects are examples of how new and young architects should master communication.
3. Poor at Hand Sketching
Architecture is more about hand sketches and less about use of new technology and tools. It has been seen that the new architects are not good at sketching by hand. If they can do, they don’t have enough time to do it. This is a serious challenge for the architects these days. They are surrounded by latest tools, 3D architecture software and apps that are helping them in sketching and creating designs and drawings so they have just left sketching far behind.
4. The New Tech Solution
The new tech solutions are creating a generation gap. The new architects are good at designing and software but poor at sketching by hands. This is quite opposite when it comes to the older generation of architects who are poor at new tech solutions like 3D architecture rendering, and good at sketching. This gap needs to be reduced so that new architects learn sketching whereas senior architects becomes habitual to the new tech solutions and software.
5. Work-Life Balance
You may be thinking how this can be an issue when they don’t get enough clients. There are some architecture companies that have enough work to engage hundreds of architects. So for such people and companies, the work-life balance has become a problem. They have a lot of work and can’t spend enough time with families and children. Experts recommend breaks are necessary and there should be proper work-life balance for every professional.
6. File Sharing Issues
We know architects use CAD, 3D rendering programs and other tools to create designs and develop plans. But the issue comes when they have to share such drawings and files with clients. There are no particularly good options that facilitate architects to share big data files, images and drawings in an easy way.
7. Urbanization and Architects
There is no doubt that world is facing urbanization and it is a serious challenge for the world at the moment. Architects are not encouraging designs and layout plans that can deal with urbanization and leave more green spaces in mega cities. This is where the top architects should focus on and play their roles.