Communication is a huge part of the architectural profession. As an architect, your overall role is to be a leader of the design team, a representative of the owner, and a resource for the contractor. To get everything for a building to work together relies heavily on the architect’s communication skills. I believe that a series of communication courses would have been very beneficial in college to instill its importance, learn best practices of communication, and to let collaborative communication become a habit prior to graduation.
Internally:
Internally within the office (regardless if you have engineers in-house or not), communication is important for documentation, schedule, specifications, constructability and so on. It is critical that all team members are instructed accordingly, and that they understand when changes occur. For instance, a meeting memo for all parties helps to show any changes, when decisions are made, and deadlines for those you could not attend. If changes are made and it is not communicated to the entire team, there is a good chance that the changes will not be updated in the drawings and or specifications.
Design professionals:
This includes everyone from design engineers to specialty consultants. With BIM and CAD, it is important to share models between professionals so that drawings can be as coordinated as possible. However, just sharing a Revit model may not be enough. It is hard for someone to read your mind on everything that has changed since the last model upload. If there are major changes to particular areas, it would be advantageous of you to explain those areas in an email or document. That way, the engineer is aware of the changes, and if there are any concerns from their end, they can express those with you while still in the design phase rather than catching a coordination error during construction.
The owner:
As I have mentioned in other articles, every owner is different on their knowledge of the process of constructing a building or doing renovation. It’s the architect’s responsibility to understand their background knowledge and use the proper communication techniques needed educate the client before and throughout the process. For instance, a larger university usually has architects or construction managers on staff that have the knowledge base of construction; however smaller companies that do not usually have construction projects can become overwhelmed. Knowing the type of client you have for a project completely changes how you communicate and guide the project. It is important to realize that the building or project is the owner’s project. Communicating the design to meet their functional and practical needs is an important role of the design team.
In construction:
In construction a lot of the important aspects under communicating with design professionals carries over into the construction phase. You should not let the contractor try to guess the changes made, especially if you have to have a revision cloud over a large area rather than small regions. I have found creating a narrative for the contractor to go along with bulletins/ASI/Revisions is helpful to make sure they understand what has changed from the previous set of drawings. Or talking to the contractor to brainstorm different ways of achieving the same goal is a cost effective and construction efficient manner prior to fixing the drawings is extremely beneficial for the whole team.
In construction, it is also important to understand what type of changes affect other parties. If changes and equipment are being rearranged, did you review the electrical documents to see if the electrical engineer needs to modify their drawings? Or if the owner wants to shift a wall or two, does that affect the light levels or the amount of airflow needed for the room? Does anything regarding the ceilings also need to change with moving a wall or two? It’s about blending coordination and communication to run a project.
As the architect, communication is key during all phases of the project. Knowing how to be able to listen, distill information, delegate, and communicate is crucial in the growth of a career in architecture. Being a young professional working for someone and checking off the boxes for AXP hours is not enough. It is your job to take the initiative to pay attention to how your project architects/project managers/principals are communicating with all parties. Some professionals are better communicators than others and it is your job to see how a project runs based on the communication techniques used as well as the design. Learning from a multitude of people in your office is how your understanding of communication in architecture grows into your own approach.
Written by Katelyn Rossier