Architects are not just creative designers; they are visionaries who bridge the gap between aesthetics and functionality. Because of this, building your architecture team is something to be taken seriously.
Knowing the essential skill set your potential architects should have is a good way to start the recruitment process. Doing this ensures you have a team of experienced and capable members who can bring your clients’ visions and ideas to life using established design principles.
Additionally, your skilled architects can set a strong foundation for your firm’s future endeavors, shaping your team’s reputation and fostering success in the world of architecture.
Consider Offshore Options
When you want to build the most talented teams of architects, keep in mind that you don’t need to limit your members to only onshore or local professionals.
Outsourcing jobs for architects allows you to find industry experts from other countries who can be part of your dream architecture team. They have the skills and experience you’re looking for and can help you start taking on different projects, even if you’re a new business.
You can rely on your architects to handle various tasks and even projects without spending a significant amount of time and money training them.
Outsourcing architects also enables you to add or reduce your team size as needed without the need to undergo costly and time-consuming hiring, onboarding, training and offboarding processes.
Whether you want to work with outsourced architects or a combination of onsite and offshore professionals, you’ll have an easier time finding members with the skills you need when you consider outsourcing some team members.
Skills to Look for in Your Architects
To have a team of talented, reliable and high-performing architects, ensure your potential employees have these essential skills:
- Advanced numeracy
All architects need a strong background in geometry, algebra and other advanced math concepts.
Professionals in the field of architecture need these skills to understand the properties of different construction materials, how they bear weight, and their strengths and weaknesses.
Architects also need a good working knowledge of physics and other scientific concepts they have to use in designing buildings, drafting plans and more.
- Technical proficiency
Aside from having excellent numeracy and science skills, all architects need to have a variety of technical skills.
These should include drafting and using computer-aided design (CAD) software (AutoCAD and Revit) and building information modeling (BIM).
Architects should be experts in using these tools since these are essential for converting their creative ideas into detailed plans that will be used for executing the project.
Needless to say, your team members should be computer literate since they need to use communication tools to communicate with their teammates and project management software to stay on top of all their tasks.
- Creativity and design
Architects must have the ability to envision innovative and imaginative designs that meet your client’s requirements while also considering their impact on the environment.
As such, they need to be creative, which means constantly coming up with novel ideas that meet client demands and bring their vision to life.
Whether the client requires a contemporary home or an industrial building, your team should be able to give them what they want.
Design thinking, a problem-solving approach that emphasizes empathy and user-centric solutions, is also a crucial skill all architects should have. This ability allows professionals in this field to create spaces that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
These skills can help your firm provide services that meet client requirements and stand out from the competition.
- Problem solving
Architects often face many challenges during the design and construction process. Because of this, your staff should have excellent problem-solving skills to find innovative solutions that balance various aesthetic, functional, and budgetary considerations.
Additionally, your team may also encounter legal issues that can impact your project.
Your architects should be able to solve these problems within the shortest time possible to avoid delays that can affect your project timeline.
- Attention to detail
The most beautiful, client-pleasing architectural designs involve intricate details.
Your architects must have a keen eye for detail to ensure that every element of the design, from materials and finishes to proportions and measurements, is carefully considered and aligns with the overall vision of the project.
Moreover, engineers, construction workers and contractors will depend on your architects’ ability to create detailed drawings for a project. This attention to detail will also be reflected when they create models and drawings and translate designs into plans everyone involved in the project needs to follow.
- Communication
All architects should have excellent communication skills so that they can convey their ideas to clients, colleagues, and construction teams clearly.
Your team should be able to clearly articulate their design concepts through drawings, presentations and written documentation.
Also, your architects should be able to communicate well with each other and everyone involved in the project to ensure everybody is on the same page and working towards the same goals.
Effective communication leads to enhanced teamwork and productivity, which is why it is important to hire architects who have excellent speaking, listening and writing skills.
Regardless of how many architects you need now and how big your company grows, these skills will remain the foundation of a successful architectural practice, so ensure the talent you hire has them all.
Leave a comment