At Lab, we recently celebrated our first year in business and are able to reflect upon our strategies for success. As a start-up, we had the opportunity to design and define a new model for delivering architectural services. We considered all aspects of the practice, from the details of technical infrastructure to our method of articulating design choices with our clients. Wanting to focus our time and effort on design and client relationships, we sought to create a company that is nimble and free of technological and infrastructural issues. Coming into being in the virtual age, Lab is built on the idea of portability and effective harnessing of the internet.
The reinvention of the practice has benefits for both time management and quality. In traditional models of architectural practice, the designer brings a formalized presentation to the client and goes back to the office make revisions. Though much of design work is accomplished in studios, the strategy work and planning can be done on site with the client. By eliminating servers and leveraging cloud storage, we are able to bring all the tools of our office to the clients’ site and eliminate the step of re-translating decisions into drawings. Our work is accessible from anywhere. Working in real time with our clients and within our own team, we can collaborate no matter where we are. Design revisions are uploaded to our cloud based information, so our team members at the office have access to the same information quickly and our group is always in sync.
The ease of a cloud based system benefits our clients in lower overhead costs. Importantly, it allows our firm unlimited flexibility of growth. Storage is an operating cost, not a capital expense, and as such can be upgraded at will from month to month as needed. We can grow with our clients and meet their demands without looking for new infrastructure.
Using technology to simplify our practice has also been a focus. Rather than pulling from multiple programs to create a presentation, we are able to use our software effectively, keeping the complexity of creating our imagery straightforward. Our clients benefit from the fact that there is no redrawing time and no lag between numeric and visual information. In our recent university work we have worked with user groups in three dimensions, using the rendering tools to test and present the designs. Our software allows these designs to also be shown in traditional plan and elevation for use in construction without redrawing the work. The benefit to both the clients and to ourselves is that what is presented is what will be built.
Integrating all aspects of the project at the earliest phases streamlines our design work and saves time. Rather than redraw the MEP and Structural work, we link their models to our own. In this way, we have been able to quickly see the relationship between the consultant work and our own, correcting issues during the design phases of the project. The time saved translates into savings for our clients and helps us to design a more coordinated project.
The challenge for firms today is to be competitive without compromising creativity and attention to clients. In designing our firm, we decided to push ourselves to maximize what current technology has to offer. The ability to bring our design work to the client, allow for ease of growth and integration of all aspects of our work has freed our firm to focus on our client relationships. It allows us to grow without growing pains. This year we’ve more than doubled our team without significant infrastructural change As we continue to grow, we will see how this model adapts, however, maintaining a small footprint and a growing design practice is a great place to be.
Stephanie Goldberg AIA LEED AP BC+D is a principal at Lab / Life. Science. Architecture, Inc., a Boston based architecture firm focused on laboratory design.
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