6 Tips for Architects. Finding the right Engineers.

Architects. Are you getting back from your engineers the same effort that you put into your projects?

Wanna know why?....

It is very probable that you have been fighting; and scrapping to be creative. Perhaps you are still waiting for that time where the REAL essence of your designs live long enough in the minds of your clients, so that they are built the way they should be built. You have a hunch that everyone will thank you for your perseverance... eventually.

If only you had back up, just when you needed it the most. Sterotypically the contractor is more interested in getting on and off the job in the quickest time, with as little fuss as possible. They are delivered to you complete with 'eye rolling' one liners like "I've worked for 20 years on countless home builds, and not one client ever complained about the finish of their door knobs!"

Even the presence of an educated colleague, the professionally qualified engineer - does little to further your cause. Economy, practicality, buildability are the engineers mantras. "Give the client mediocre and cheap design, and they will love you for it!"

Architects know different, they know that mentality will not be rewarded in the long term. It will definitely not have a strong enough appeal to get you automatically novated to the next build project.

Times are changing though. Contractors are slicker, they understand that sexy design and quality finish pays for itself, time and time again. Engineers are remembering how they achieved so much success in business in the past, and once more they are flashing their personalities and creative side.

If you find yourself regularly referring work to structural engineers, it would be a fair assumption that these projects are the ones which you yourself have been personally recommended to by a recent or previously satisfied client. It is also very likely that you have not had to endure a beauty pageant style bidding process to land it either. They trust your judgement.

The following 6 helpful hints have been developed to be of value to your practice on any given construction project; but have a particular potentcy if your clients are homeowners or developers, and your those projects are residential in scale.

The next time that you hand a list of preferred engineering partners to your valuable clients, think on these points. You may find yourself forging new and ever more productive relationships with some of your biggest fans and game changers... Structural Engineers.

I thought that I would start you with an obvious one first...

1. Insurances and qualifications. Very important, as this protects you, the client, and contractors from footing the bill for costly engineering mistakes. In certain countries [some US states included] it is legally required that engineers must be professionally accredited before before being able to certify design calculations. Elsewhere, even though it has been said that academic and professional qualifications alone, are not necessarily proof that you have the best suited engineer for the job - they do however, give you and your client a great deal of peace of mind. Professionally qualified engineers the world over will have been pier reviewed, and essentially have built up enough experience to know their limits. They also understand where they can bring real value to your project. Stack the odds heavily in everyone's favour by referring the professionals.

2. Engineers are not just a technical resource. You probably heard this a lot in college or university, and the reason why you heard it a lot is because it's true! Engineers are your reinforcements. If you got a problem, they'll solve it, and if properly utilised they are adept in helping you maintain control over a project brief. If you consider this to be the start of a REAL relationship, then engineers [in most cases] represent the realist 'Yin' to your dreamer 'Yan'. They can just as easily make the most amazing things come to life, as well as put the breaks on certain illogical project decisions. So let them in on your dreams. You will be surprised with the results.

3. Engineers can be an extension of your businesses personality and vision, and their solutions reflect upon your hard work and creativity. Do not introduce them to your valuable clients as the 'party poopers'. If you feel this way about them, then find another engineer to partner with. Should you chose to refer them, bare in mind that they need to not only accentuate your branding and image [incredibly important], but assist your client with understanding why they made the right choice by selecting you as their architect.

4. Finding a competent engineering resource is easy. Let's face it, they know what they are doing - but who wants to be known ONLY as being competent? So insist that the engineers you refer to clients are engaging, thoughtful and live to share knowledge externally, as well as within the design team environment. You may go through a number of engineers before you find the right practice, group or freelancer who 'gets' what it is that you are selling, but don't give up too easily. Watch the online forums for that spark of interest, and talk to them if they drop in on your institutions meetings.

5. Social entrepreneurship and interaction. You want engineers to openly share, and use their personal marketing efforts to help you sell your ideas to your clients too. Mentioning to a client that your preferred engineer is innovative and an award winner, may only result in them scrutinising the fee estimates as they roll in, "so how much extra am I paying for my award winning engineer then?". This is not condemning an engineers need to be brave, and to take on exceptional projects briefs, but more a criticism of the fact that many clients will not realise what it is that an engineer can do for them. What you really want to hear from your clients are responses like "Ooo I've heard of them!", or "they're the ones who ......fill in blank here..... aren't they?". Promoting a sense of family in the community, fills us all up with a satisfying glow, which if nurtured can lead to enticing, powerful and productive project relationships. Take advantage of this by looking out for these socially dynamic behaviours from your engineering neighbours.

6. Distance and localism. I'd like to finish off with another obvious one. Engineers are certainly more likely to be able to attend a larger number of site meetings if they are selected for projects which have a close proximity to their offices. When the majority of your projects are regional, then instruct engineers who are in or very close to that region. My experience has shown me that engineers [due to logistical reasons] are far more responsive and able to act upon design developments and unforeseen circumstances, because of that closeness. This statement by no means represents every single engineer or practice in the world, but it is a preference that you should be taking a very seriously. Note: specialisms in certain construction techniques, or a very strong preference towards a particular engineer may force you to consider non-local help. If so, then consider asking the preferred engineer to seek to partner with another local engineer to provide a 'site support service', incase of complications. If you refer engineers who are naturally more open and collaborative, then this should not be too daunting for them. Engineers are problem solvers - they will find a way to make it work for the benefit of the project.

I hope you found my hints and tips useful. It's time that you get out there and begin asking some hard questions about the contributions of some of your engineering colleagues.

Engine[er]


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Watton, Norfolk, United Kingdom

The Giving Gremlins [Business Post]

Don't despair. My weekly post is in the pipe line, It has just been held up in lieu of a few other interesting developments...

In the meantime, perhaps you'll take a look at a blog post which I wrote for a business networking group.

The Giving Gremlins. Let me know what you think.





Engine[er]

It's a meeting. Not a war [now put down that hand grenade]

"If we are all in agreement on the decision - then I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about" Alfred P. Sloan

Have you ever sat at your desk, working on a project, and you witness the beginnings of a fairly mundane design issue as it slowly transforms itself into a never-ending thread of disruptive and threatening emails?

I bet you have, and if you are an engineer then you will probably have found yourself right in the middle of a war or two.

#EmailFail

The experienced amongst you will have already have been mentally reaching for the project file and prepping for a fiery meeting - under the guise of a 'design team meeting', or even more benignly a 'value engineering exercise'. Shudder.

It can be said that structural and civil engineers who gain good experience, and are subsequently found to be competent enough to shoulder the burden of design responsibility - will be undoubtedly be shuffled closer and closer to the head of the table, in a finger pointing party.

Finger pointing parties are not enjoyable experiences for the guest[s] of honour, and until you have experienced a few, you will never really get used to a gut wrenching feeling, akin to have being ambushed by a ravenous pack of close family members.

In the wake of yet another quality 'stitch-up' session, I feel qualified enough to speak to you about why and how you should prep for meetings as a project engineer.

Ask yourself the following question, when you know a 'meeting' is on the cards.

"What's the MEETING for?"

Seems obvious doesn't it? It is amazing though how this small detail gets forgotten by the meetings participants. Planning the research and preparation for a meeting is an efficient use of your time. Especially when you are fully aware of what the aim of the meeting is.

• Contractor and Client led Design Team Meetings. These tend to be confrontational micro managing exercises. If you are the only design team member who is invited, then you had probably be expecting some stiff questions directed at you from the organisers. Staying on top of your project 'to do list' and dealing with queries in a timely manner will normally preclude you from these kinds of meetings. It is worth mentioning that if you have taken an educated risk on an item or two, then consider this forum a way for your employers to ascertain how confident you are in your assumptions. Your thoughts may well be minuted.
• Design Workshops. A chance for the project designers to come together and run through design difficulties or envisaged future challenges. These meetings tend only to involve 'designers', but every once in a while, a particularly experienced site engineer or contractor will be invited to add their particular flavour of practicality to the mix. Productive design workshops are achieved by all attendees actively participating in the run up to, and the preparation of the meeting agenda. Note: To forewarn the other attendees of your intended design queries is considered good form here. Make the very best use of your time by involving yourself with this process.
• Engineering Team Status Meetings. Not every engineering practice sees the value of these 'staff meetings'. For example, Bang & Olufsen do not bother with many of them. They choose only to meet up at the beginning of a project, after conceptual cardboard models have been created, and when the project is finished! The key to organising useful team status meetings is not to micro manage engineers time, or to invite the participants to address any overly technical questions. The cross fertilisation of new ideas, skills learned, feedback and project experiences is key to expanding the knowledge of the team in the shortest possible weekly or bi-weekly meeting. Do not use a rigid format, as this can be a real innovation kill joy. Boooo!

In short, we have prepared for you a list of key points to consider when the subject of meetings is raised at your workplace or by a senior member of the project team. Use this information wisely.

1. Prepare well, As mentioned earlier. Even a small amount of preparation will show the rest of the invitees that you are not there to waste time, but to enable the process.
2. Understand why it is you have been gathered... or summoned to the meeting in the first place.
3. Look for ways to assist in the flow of design ideas, take them to their natural conclusion if needs be. Don't be too quick to dismiss an idea.
4. Offer you own empirical evidence or justifiable career experience upon the topics being discussed. Help the team come to educated conclusions.
5. Use a situation where technical design issues crop up to demonstrate that you are thinking about practicalities and economies of design. This is part and parcel of being an engineer, and will be considered one of your main contributions to the proceedings.
6. Keep answers to direct questions brisk and lose the waffle. Listen out for silences. These represent the end of the meeting is near.
7. Be careful to summarise the meetings salient points at the end. Demonstrate that you have understood what has been asked of you. Follow up with a list of project priorities if you feel it is necessary.
8. Take notes!
9. Leave them wanting more. A meeting full of people who can't wait to see how you are going to deliver on what you have promised, will feel engaged. For the right reasons, you will have enthused the room with your technical knowledge, a quirky designers perspective and a willingness to contribute. Well done you.

Remember, meetings are not meant to be war, but a bit of tactical intelligence gathering never goes to waste.

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." Benjamin Franklin

Engine[er]

Concrete Angels

Bored? Read this document. This an annual online PDF report published by EngineeringUK, aimed at summarising the state of engineering in the UK.

Don't worry they do mention civil and structural engineers :)

It's a fantastic read, and it highlights that EngineeringUK are committed to the pursuit of two important strategic goals:

• Improve the perception of engineering, engineers and technology in the UK.

• To improve the supply of engineers.

It says so, on page 1. So you had better believe it!

How do they intend on tackling these age old problems? With age old, tried [tired] and tested techniques of course. Are you beginning to understand why our industry has not really moved on for the last 30 years or so now?

The report is a very large one, and deserves a great deal more attention than I am about to afford it. Many apologies in advance to the documents authors [co authors etc.], I will be absorbing it in its entirety for the next few weeks.

Right here, right now though - I am interested in understanding how civil and structural engineering, education, public awareness and training is being dealt with.

Interesting statistics from 'engineering education' sources:

• 47% of educators think that a career in engineering is desirable.
• 21% of students aged 14 to 16, think that a career in engineering is desirable.

Apparently someone has been telling students that you need to be strong in sciences and maths. Both subjects are real crowd pleaser's obviously, so inevitably there will be a tailing off in interest... we shouldn't be surprised of that.

Question. Those few students, who have decided that an average starting salary of £25-26k is a large enough carrot to stomach the maths homework, won't they just be subsequently exposed to an industry which has been rigidly carrying out the same training and education routines for the last 50+ years?


So who cares? The industry is hardly changing, it's just adapting and reacting to loss of students to the financial and insurance sectors. We need a real change. Don't we?

Why do we insist on gambling our futures on 14-16 year old students who are currently still hedging their bets on being discovered as the next X-Factor mega star or the managing director of the next billionaire start-up?

Next on my list of 'DOH!' events is so called green technologies. Don't get me wrong, the construction industry has a massive task in front of them. Clearly designing economically is not good enough nowadays. So we all have our green stamps at the ready; STAMP! Automated, super-pod designed, interchangeable, recyclable materials costing our clients many more thousands of pounds to utilise and construct thier buildings.

Designing economically should be our first and foremost concern. We still have plenty of carbon and economic savings to be had, just there.

What's my contribution to green technologies? I design economically for practical construction and installation, questioning serviceability limits whenever I feel that I can, and I am currently making leaps and bounds towards achieving a paperless office. No applause please. Every little helps.

I have skimmed the EngineeringUK document so far, and have therefore formed a summarised appreciation of the findings. I'm sure there are some hidden gems in there, which I will be exposing over the next few weeks.

My initial thoughts are that we are placing a high level of importance in the following aspects [strategic goals included]:

• Engaging with and courting world leaders, politicians, and hard hitting industry generals. Why? A unified message needs to be delivered.

• What's the message? Push harder. Go in that direction over there. Be better, think more and achieve more. I know what you are thinking... because I'm an engineer too. Isn't that all a bit vague?! We are required to translate the meaning of these high level orders and condense them into a proper battlefield strategy. Micro businesses to multi national engineering powerhouses, we deserve better than that, don't we?

• Education. Get'em young. Spread the word. I am trying hard not to look confused and quizzical as I write this, as is this not code for placing all our eggs in one basket? Invite more recruits into a system that has not changed for years... even I can be more creative than that. I'll show you too.

• Raise the threshold level of theoretical knowledge in university education. This is great, but isn't the industry is crying out for experienced engineers to help them succeed, in an industry [world] writhing with financial and technological challenges.

I need to share some more of my vision with you.

As from today, I'm searching. Searching for a civil engineering graduate [bias in structural engineering - buildings], or a student currently in their final year. I cannot specify exactly what I am looking for yet, but I will know in 5 minutes of meeting them [or indeed reading their CV's] that they are right person for the job.

Paradoxically though, below is a short list of the qualities I'll be looking for:

1. Tech savvy.
2. Outgoing, and interesting to chat to. Hungry for growth.
3. Able to demonstrate practical aptitude as well as theoretical mastery.
4. Wishes to own their own business in the future.
5. Kick-ass hard working attitude and willing to demonstrate that.
6. A sports person. Don't ask me why, but sports people have a certain something about them. They are competitive and tenacious. We need that. 

That's it.

Together we will embark upon securing you 18 months worth of industry beating engineering experience, setting standards to allow others to follow in your footsteps, and build an enviable CV as a result. Thus setting you up for your illustrious tour of duty with the heavy engineering giants [you pick one]. You will quickly move up the ranks, doing a full circle and eventually become your own boss, and industrious leader in your own right.

This is not a normal employment opportunity. It does not come with promises of a comfortable 18 months of engineering servitude. It does however come with a vision.

If you believe that doing something different and pushing the industry in a way that it has never experienced is a worthy cause...then you have simply got to contact me.

"Anything worth having, is worth working for" Andrew Carnegie.

So where does the Concrete Angel thing come in? Well to be regarded as an angel in business you are expected to invest time and [mainly] money to help a chosen businesses to fulfil their dreams.

In this case, the structural engineers engaged to help you on your way to building your career will also be investing both time and money... and that makes them Concrete Angels.

I look forward to the applications. Email me on glen@avatar-engineering.co.uk


Engine[er]

City in a City - Hotel Naoura Barriere in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Last weekend, my partner and I were fantastically fortunate to stay in the beautiful Et Ryads Naoura Barriere Hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Within side the walled grounds we discovered a mini-city within the city. The architecture we found is worth sharing with you.

Enjoy.

 

 

 

Menara Airport - Marrakesh, Morocco [Photos]