TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES – QUEZON CITY

938 AURORA BOULEVARD, QUEZON CITY

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 3
DIFFERENT STRATEGIES IN BUSINESS OF
ARCHITECTURE
STRATEGIES IN MARKETING AND PUBLIC
RELATIONS

SUBMITTED BY: PINCA, JOSHUA P.

SECTION: AR42FA1

DATE: 02/08/2018

SUBMITTED TO: AR. MELVIN ANICIETE

I. Introduction

What is a strategy? In a conventional implication, strategy defines as a plan to perform or

guidelines to achieve the goal. In the business language, it is known as an art and science of
planning in a methodical way and convenes the resources for its most efficient capability.

The business of Architecture, we may have the subject of Professional Practice and we do
know very little about business but that’s only the gist or the surface of business. In any school or
college here in the Philippines, we haven’t really dug down to its explicit academe fraction. Then,
why do we need to know about the Business of Architecture? The only answer, you won’t be an
effective architect without the foundation of understanding the business side in the architecture
field, especially if you’re building your own firm. There are a lot of branches that are connected to
our field, e.g., design, construction, building management, and all of these are connected with
Business. As a young professional, the better we understand the business, the better we can
manage our time and our designs and clients.

In this paper, I will discuss the creative strategies for developing the business side of an
architecture firm; may it be a small or large architecture firm, design studio, everyone needs a
thorough planning in the business core.

II. Body of Contents

Creating healthy relationship network with colleagues, other industry professionals, and
firms will gain immense resources from staying in the status quo to trendy building developments.
Alternatively, instead of considering other firms as competitions, deem them as potential partners
for future projects as to help strengthen the business scheme of your firms. Moreover, keeping
virtuous relations with other firms may lead to information about new projects in the city or town
that you may not know. And this will give you the advantage from an architect or firm. There may
times that our plans won’t work out with clients or firms and we have to break the connection – but
keep it affable, as they say, “Don’t burn your bridges.”

Export our design as portable or shareable objects, especially in our time that internet and
technology rule the most. One particular entity in the portable items is the business card, we want
our card to be appealing and likable as like as our design philosophies. Second is the website, with
just a one-phrase-like, you can easily share it to people online. Nowadays, we have host websites
that showcase every work of an architect, designer, photographer, etc. I.e., Behance; is a rapidly
growing design-centric technology team based in New York City. It is an online platform that
showcases and discovers creative works. It is also a platform for companies who are exploring
talents on a global scale. As it is partnered with massive organizations and top schools maximizing
the exposure for talents in creative designs.

Another strategy would develop the business side of architecture is to establish talk
opportunities. It is a great way of reaching multitudes of people at the same time. There’s a higher
probability that you may encounter students who want to work with you in the future, businessmen
who are exploring and searching for suitable designers and architects, teachers in different schools
that may want you to have a talk with them, high school classmate who is also in your field or align
to it.
 One example is the Anthology event which is now on the massive scale of speakers who are well-
educated and experienced architects and designers and have the substantial practice in the
business of architecture.

III. Case Study/Case Situations

Parsing Ethics

Last February 2015, there was an issue of hundreds of migrant worker deaths in Qatar
owing the preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2022. Al Wakrah’s Saoud bin Abdulrahman Stadium
in South Qatar, designed by Zaha Hadid. The infamous Zaha Hadid’s reply to the story: “I have
nothing to do with the workers. I think that’s an issue the government – if there’s a problem –
should pick up. Hopefully, these things will be resolved.”

That dustup came on the heels of two other critical debates, one over the aesthetics of the
stadium that Hadid had designed, and the other surrounding general concerns about the World
Cup – as well as major global sporting events like Olympics – in displacing people and abusing
power within host countries. Hadid said that ultimately worker safety was “not my duty as an
architect to look at.” Architecture critic Paul Goldberger said that “No one forces an architect to
accept a job that carries a serious ethical compromise.” The Al Wakrah stadium, in many respects,
a case study for ethical quandary. Safety, aesthetics, politics, economics, global relations, client
relations, and environmental and public good all come into play in this multibillion-dollar structure.

And this speaks to a broader truth: ethical discourse within architecture is tepid at best,
even with a new generation of architects who believe that social responsibility should drive the
profession.

IV. References

Charleston, SC. (2017, February 05). Understanding the Business Side of Architecture.
Retrieved from https://www.buildingsarecool.com

Dickinson, E.E (2015, March 09). AIA Feature: Architecture, Big-A and Little-a. Retrieved
from https://www.architectmagazine.com

Kennedy, J. (2011, July 07). The Business of Architecture: Panel recap. Retrieved from
https://www.archdaily.com

About Behance. Retrieved from https://www.behance.net/about