Passion is a significant driving force for starting and running an architectural practice. But being able to run a business is a prerequisite for its survival. You need to combine passion with business acumen. Besides being an architect, you need professional skills to run your business for it to survive.
In Europe around 90% of all architectural practices employ five people or less, and more than 90% of all practices have turnover close to/below the level required by the EU Public Procurement Directive.
“The aim with this publication “Architecture – passion or profession” is to create awareness about the business side. We think it is fair to state that; “Your practice is the most important house you will ever design”. And therefore another one-liner is very relevant to point out; namely “You need to work more ON your practice than IN your practice”. We also wanted to create awareness about business models, since almost all architectural practices have the same model. They bill by the hours they spend. Maybe it would be interesting to look at new ways – after all the work done by an architect creates value a long time after the project is completed. We hope that our fellow architectural practices around Europe will read this publication with interest and we think there is a never ending task for us to challenge ourselves in combining passion with profession.” stated Lars Emil Kragh, former Chairman of ACE IBM taskforce.
Author: ACE