As COVID-19 spreads over every continent, Architects all over the world have had to start working from home. If you’re an architect and you find yourself working from home, there are several ways you can make better use of the quarantine. This article is for all the architects worldwide who are staying at home to help stop the spread of this virus.
Update Your Architecture Portfolio
The time is now to update your portfolio. If your portfolio is living as a pdf or a website you should create and update both.
Update your portfolio with things people want to see:
- Recent projects
- Accomplishments
- Group projects
- Competitions
- Digital drawings
As you are updating you can also, “spring clean,” all of the old irrelevant projects that no longer represent your style or aspirations. It is advisable to update your portfolio every six months while projects are fresh. Keep your work up to date.
Free Website Builders and Online Portfolio Sites for Architects:
WordPress Websites + Themes for Architects—WordPress is the gold standard for creating personal and professional architecture websites. If you can’t code -no problem! There are some stunning architecture themes and WordPress templates for architects that can also be utilized in WordPress to add unique features. The portfolio templates give you enough structure to build out a beautiful online presence for a few dollars a month in hosting and some themes are actually free. Watch this video to learn how to set up a WordPress website
Wix-Based Websites for Architects—This is likely a name you have heard before. Wix is a very popular website builder and incredibly user-friendly for non-technical people the world over. All kinds of working professionals have used Wix. Tim Bengel has an excellent online portfolio of urban and landscape architecture, as does Stephen Peck, an interior designer.
Add Your Portfolio to Behance—Behance brands itself as a portfolio builder for all types of professionals. This website gives you the ability to upload projects, pictures, documentation, and more for free. This may be more attractive to those who are not interested in spending to get a good-looking site.
Post Your Portfolio Online With Format—Originally geared toward photographers, Format is great for portfolios. It has a plethora of different templates. This site builder is great for incorporating custom features without coding.
Try Out Some Online Marketing – Boost your Digital Presence
Online Marketing For Architects—In many cases, architects are still half a decade or more behind the rest of the world when it comes to digital marketing strategy. Architecture has traditionally been a face-to-face and word of mouth industry. There are plenty of marketing guides for architects with the latest trends and marketing techniques.
Explore and Test New Digital Tools for Architects—Keeping up with your tasks may be hard in between meetings. You can keep track of your tasks and others with project management tools like Trello or Google Docs.
Online Meetings and Hangouts—Arrange and attend weekly meetings to stay on track with your coworkers. Zoom and Google Hangouts are two great tools to use to get a hold of all of your colleagues. Setting weekly meetings also helps keep to ground you in the workflow. This can be a good idea for team meetings as well. If your office has a typical Friday night bar consider using the app House Party. It is a face-to-face app that allows you and your coworkers to take a break just before the weekend and laugh a little.
Update (Feb 2022): Houseparty has been shut down permanently, but you’ll find alternatives here.
Increase Your Network and Expand Your Reach On Social Media
Though you cannot physically network, you can still connect online. The miracle of the internet allows the important element of networking for architects to continue. As the technology behind social media continues to advance, architects need to continue to participate or get left behind.
Linkedin—Create or update your LinkedIn profile NOW. Linkedin is a great place to get jobs, stay connected to colleagues, and create new connections. There are loads of architecture groups you can join to make new professional connections. Additionally, increase your overall profile strength by adding links to your projects and uploading images from your portfolio to your current and previous roles.
Webinars to Make Contacts and Expand Knowledge
Webinars can be a creative way to stay up to date with progress in your field. Both live and pre-recorded webinars are taking the place of live in-person events. AutoDesk Webinars offers monthly webinars for architects and industry professionals to help companies grow and innovate. Subjects vary and these are free to join. Design Arts Seminars Inc. are unfortunately not free but are extremely exciting live webinars. Some of them deal with how designers can help to alleviate world hunger and modular design. Architectural Record has webinars for design architects covering general and specific topics relevant to today’s architects. Discover new tricks and trends on custom homes, aesthetics, landscape architecture and more!
Online Courses
Take that class you’ve been thinking about since December. The pandemic has presented an opportunity to continue your education; use it!
Frank Gehry’s Free Masterclass—Take a Master Class in architecture and design or innovative ways of building. The famous modern architect Frank Gehry has a master class on design and architecture. It is never too late to learn something new. In an evolving field like architecture, there is always something new and intriguing to learn.
Green Home Institute—If you are interested in furthering your knowledge of green building these webinars are perfect. They offer lectures in air and water purification for homes, natural buildings, and a whole lot of other topics.
Work On Your Dream Project
As a busy professional, it’s likely that your passion projects have been low on your list of priorities. Consider taking an hour out of your day each working day to work on that dream project. Skip Netflix and start drawing up sketches for the wild ideas you’ve always wanted to try. Perhaps you have not considered a passion project because you have been bogged down with so many day-to-day projects. If you are looking for inspiration think of projects you might like to flex your creativity.
What to Take Away
Under incredible circumstances, good work still gets done. It is important to remember that though you may feel a bit trapped indoors you can always continue progressing in your work. Pursue your goals whether that is updating your portfolio, furthering your learning through webinars and online courses or finally working on the dream project. Now is the time. If all of these suggestions seem a bit daunting and you are feeling like you have enough work to do without adding more, why not just read some interesting architecture articles.
What can you do to design a better future not after corona but today?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE
Taylor Ryan is the CEO of ArchitectureQuote, a platform that helps architects find new projects, competitions and collaborations with clients. Taylor is an American entrepreneur living in Copenhagen, Denmark, and also runs a digital marketing strategy and growth agency, Klint Marketing
