Architecture Social on Lisa Rayne's "Architecture in the Den" Podcast

0059 - Architecture Social on Lisa Rayne's "Architecture in the Den" Podcast
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[00:00:00]

Introduction to Architecture in the Den
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Lisa Raynes: So hi everyone, welcome to Architecture in the Den so this is a podcast, YouTube, you, whatever format it is. Talking about the business of architecture. And today we've got Stephen talking about the pandemic architecture opportunities. Stephen, or Steve, would you like to introduce yourself?

Meet Stephen Drew: Founder of Architecture Social
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Stephen Drew: Sure thing. Hi there Lisa. So I'm Stephen Drew. I am founder of the Architecture Social. I work at McDonald company. I lead the architectural recruitment team. I've done architectural recruitment for seven years. Before that I worked in the industry for three years as a part two architectural assistant.

Stephen Drew: I studied part one and part two as well. So I've been in a similar position, not quite like a director of a company or so forth at that time. But over the years, in terms of architectural recruitment, I've worked with a lot of companies. We've [00:01:00] got, we're talking about companies like from Ziodeed, to Grimshaw, to smaller architectural practices as well, of 20 to 30 people in size, and helping them find people at different periods of time.

The Birth of Architecture Social During the Pandemic
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Stephen Drew: And one of the things, like everyone here, I also went through the pandemic, where there was a lot of change. And that's actually where the Architecture Social, which is a community, Right now about 3, 500 architects, but that was born during the pandemic when I was struggling to think what to do. I was on furlough and I wanted to do something good.

Stephen Drew: So that's why I'm really happy to talk about taking a bit of a tricky situation like the pandemic and making it into an opportunity wherever you are, really. Awesome.

Lisa Raynes: So what is the Architecture Social?

Stephen Drew: Okay, cool. So the Architecture Social originally started from the idea of I can imagine part one and part two has been super stressed out at the moment or [00:02:00] thinking, how are they going to find a job?

Stephen Drew: in the architectural job market because, they're just graduating. It's a pandemic. So originally it started as that. And over time it's basically an online platform, a community where people can share information, chat, log online, post events, attend events, do all this kind of cool stuff.

Stephen Drew: And from that over time we do CV reviews. We've helped people have jobs. And if there's any architectural practices here and employers, you can post. Your vacancy on there to graduates and get applications. So hopefully it's just a fun, exciting space for people to explore, which was created last year during the pandemic.

Lisa Raynes: So I think you're putting up a a page for Pride Road on there, the franchise. Yeah.

Stephen Drew: We've got to support architectural practices like you, Lisa. That's the point, right? It's absolutely.

Lisa Raynes: Absolutely.

Stephen Drew: That

Lisa Raynes: hums. That's brilliant.

Impact of the Pandemic on the Architecture Market
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Lisa Raynes: So how has the architecture market been [00:03:00] affected by the pandemic?

Stephen Drew: Really good question.

Stephen Drew: February, March last year, it just was like the, it was like the economic crash of 2009. Basically everything just dried up. temporary contractors or anyone that were freelancing. I think a lot of contracts were pulled. Placements, which we're going through. So placements is the term in terms of architectural recruitment, people that were going for jobs, sometimes say jobs were canceled because they were no longer there.

Stephen Drew: And lots of people, as we know, lost jobs. I was on furlough. So it really took a downward spiral quite quickly. And like a knee jerk reaction. It was just like, Projects on hold, we don't know what's going on, and unfortunately a lot of people lost their jobs. It's since been a lot better than that Lisa.

Stephen Drew: It's actually, it's quite active right now. So in terms of recruitment, because I've gone back to work, we're actually quite busy. And probably, in terms of a very literal example of opportunities during the pandemic, there's a few sectors that are quite buoyant right now in terms of [00:04:00] architecture. Large scale housing and residential is quite strong.

Stephen Drew: For instance, Lisa as well, you've got some private work and residential. I hear Pride Road's doing really well. The other ones the other sectors probably worth mentioning for the audience is healthcare because of the pandemic. And modular. Modular and data centers. So these are really growth sectors, whereas stuff like commercial really plateaued.

Stephen Drew: But now, even in commercial, we're seeing companies starting to look at how we're going to carve up existing offices. So again, making an opportunity about the existing floor plans. So those are some real examples. And just to answer your question again, summarize, it's a lot better in the architectural market right now.

Stephen Drew: There are opportunities there to be had that weren't there before.

Lisa Raynes: So how would you say any sectors have collapsed?

Stephen Drew: I wouldn't say collapsed, but some are a lot slower than others. So education is one I never hear at the moment. That could be just my perspective on what I know of the [00:05:00] market, but education is something I'm not, I don't really see that much.

Stephen Drew: Hospitality has got a lot slower. I've seen a few examples of hotels being converted into a stay at like isolation booths for coronavirus. Other than that, I think some high end residential is slower than large scale, and commercial offices were really struggling last year. Urban Design and Landscape's doing surprisingly well.

Stephen Drew: Oh,

Lisa Raynes: really? Yeah,

Stephen Drew: That's quite strong. I get a lot of requests for Urban Designers and Landscape Architects.

Navigating the Job Market and Opportunities
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Lisa Raynes: Did you see the the market after 20, 2009, and the follow on from that? Are there any lessons that we can take from that?

Stephen Drew: Here good question. I saw it as a part one, okay?

Stephen Drew: I was literally one of the lucky few that got a job, so that was when I was in industry. And that kind of formed a few of the things that I'd like to talk about today. Whereas at the time, one of my approaches, everyone in the architectural studio was worried about not getting [00:06:00] the job. And at the time I had a friend, his name's Will McDaniel, now he's a big YouTuber.

Stephen Drew: It's just a bit of a strange coincidence. Put him into YouTube. That's another example of he was an architect and now he's built a YouTube channel. So there's lots of opportunities that you can do from the career. But going back to it, I sent my application to a thousand architectural practices. Now I know,

Lisa Raynes: yeah, a

Stephen Drew: thousand.

Stephen Drew: Now I know these, that's not as an employer, you'd love to hear that someone wrote a beautiful custom email to Pride Roads. And we've, with the CV and Portfolio, but at the time I had to take a gamble and I'm going to do the companies I love and then I had to apply to the most amount of places.

Stephen Drew: So I used probability as a way to make opportunity during a global pandemic, and it was an economic crisis. And, actually the pandemic right now has caused a massive recession. And. So [00:07:00] the point was, because of that situation, I completely changed my approach. I no longer applied to 20 places, which I thought was the quote unquote best way to do it.

Stephen Drew: I applied to the most amount of places. And from them, I actually ended up going for a job at EPR Architects, which was an architectural practice, which is now an AJ100 practice. They were big, but they were never huge in the press. So I never would have found them before, but it's because I behaved in a different way during that tough time that I actually got a job that I was really happy with.

Lisa Raynes: They do say what is it? Comes out of necessity? Invention comes out of

Stephen Drew: necessity? Yeah.

Lisa Raynes: It's like me after the the crash of 2009. When I was looking for a job there wasn't anything available. I ended up being forced to set up on my own. And then that was 2010.

Lisa Raynes: And then I went into franchising it. There

Stephen Drew: you go. Which [00:08:00] is

Lisa Raynes: very unusual.

Franchising in Architecture: A New Perspective
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Lisa Raynes: Was it you who I mentioned franchising too. And you said you had an example of a of a friend who'd done really well in franchising.

Stephen Drew: Yeah. But he's the not as guy. So if I was an architect and I was looking at franchise, I'd probably encouraged to go The Pride road is just what you are doing.

Stephen Drew: So he was the on about secondhand video games at a franchise. A lot of people know called. The Computer Exchange, which is CEX, so it's that website, it's that store that you think, oh my gosh, inside it's going to be disgusting and all this stuff. And you go in and they're looking over the 50 Ps, but he made like a million pounds.

Stephen Drew: So I felt like the guy being like, really? You're doing a franchise of that? And then actually. He was amazingly he's got a great life. And so I think franchising, let's talk about that for a second. So I'd like to hear your thoughts on it, because to me, an architecture practice, Pride Row was the first example I had as a franchise.

Stephen Drew: You get, I know so many people that have done it alone, but I guess like with the Architectural [00:09:00] Social, what I like is the community aspect. But I suppose during the franchise, I'm sure you've learned a lot of mistakes that you can then pass on to people.

Lisa Raynes: Yeah, absolutely.

Stephen Drew: Yeah, because Laura was setting up the franchise as well during the pandemic effectively.

Lisa Raynes: Yes, she did down in New Forest and Bournemouth. She set up in January of last year with a face to face business. And two months later, we went straight into the pandemic and we had to completely pivot the whole model. But it was on me to change everything and find new ways of working. And because we have the systems in place, it was very easy just to show everyone how to do it.

Lisa Raynes: And so they could learn really quickly from how to pivot. And it is, it's within the franchise, you've got that structure. You've got the branding, you've got the marketing, you've got the technical know how. So you can just pivot. plug into it without [00:10:00] losing your creativity. I think a lot of people think of franchising and think you have to do, exactly the same thing.

Lisa Raynes: It's not. You get to be an architect, do what you love doing. It's just that you've got that umbrella structure to to follow.

Stephen Drew: Yeah. I think it's a good example of looking at it another way. And I do think that while there are opportunities out there, I think it's especially during the pandemic. The whole thing about setting up the architectural social community is that it's nice to have a bit of that purpose.

Stephen Drew: And I think because there are people on there, it was nice to have a responsibility during a time when, I could have quite easily drifted along and gone on Netflix and drunk copious amounts of wine. And yeah, it would have been fun for a while, but then You, your brain starts to melt and that's the other, that's the other thing I was going to say is that anyone that's doing especially if you're thinking about things you can do, even now, I think this is like a really great example of a time when everyone's at home.

Stephen Drew: We know [00:11:00] everyone's at home. So you can be quite smart with the concept of the fact that everyone's at home. How can you make something, make a difference. You can actually mentor people on Zoom calls that's one of the immediate things I would do if you want to preoccupy your time and be constructive, like actually teach people is probably a really good thing to do.

Stephen Drew: And you can, I'm sure there's lots of part ones and part two students that would really value, your input or the other thing like getting into your artwork or doing something that's creative. It's going to be really helpful. And I guess as well, Lisa, because we were talking about earlier, there's not a better time to do any to do networking.

Stephen Drew: Now, I hate the term networking because it sounds, it can sound a bit cliche, but what I'm actually doing, I was talking about is meeting people. Like me and you, Lisa, we hadn't met each other until two months ago, but you meet online, you talk about things. I was interested in the franchise, you were talking about the community aspects of, The Architecture Social and then from there we, we were having a gig along Clubhouse this morning and here we [00:12:00] are doing an event and that all comes from talking and being out there and being active and going to events.

Lisa Raynes: Yeah, I think I, Found you on LinkedIn. It's easy to contact people because everyone has their contact details up in the internet. If there's someone you want to talk to, approach them. I think whether it's through LinkedIn, Twitter. Instagram, send a direct message. You're most of the time, like nine times out of ten, you'll get a response.

Lisa Raynes: And I think that's exactly how I contacted you, Stephen, just thinking it's very interesting. What makes him tick? Do you think he'll come on podcast? And sure enough, you asked, And you have a chat and then we're doing stuff together, which is awesome.

Stephen Drew: Wow, this is it.

The Rise of Clubhouse and Networking
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Stephen Drew: And I think even touching upon Clubhouse right now, because that's an interesting one that's popped up, but I think it's a really good example on, even at first, initially, do you remember?

Stephen Drew: Because you said to me, Lisa, you should check it out. And I was like, I'm not sure. And I've got an [00:13:00] Apple and actually, again, it's like a reminder of a few more people said they were on it and I thought I have to remind myself not to be stubborn. Yeah. I've got to do something. You've

Lisa Raynes: got to open yourself up to opportunities.

Stephen Drew: Yeah. And go out with my compass. I'm like, find an old Apple, which is a literal example, but then loading it up and thinking, oh, here we go, another app. And then when you get on there, it's okay, this is interesting because there's real conversation there.

Lisa Raynes: Yeah.

Stephen Drew: And from that, you learn stuff.

Stephen Drew: I'm not saying you have to be on it all night, but maybe a little bit of, you Clubhouse or a little bit of something else. It's interesting because all of these things are tools. for communication.

Lisa Raynes: So there'll be a lot of people out there who don't know what Clubhouse is. So what is Clubhouse?

Stephen Drew: Wow, I've only been on it since Friday.

Stephen Drew: I'll do my best to summarize it. So it's a new social media platform. It's definitely on trend. So whether or not it will be used in a year or so, who knows, but that doesn't matter because it's a social media platform. The point is it's here and now, [00:14:00] and these aren't recorded things online like podcasts, which are there forever in a day.

Stephen Drew: What I find interesting about what about Clubhouse is that this conversation's in the moment. So we were chatting this morning, there was no recording. There was, if you want there. And I it has a little bit of the old school aspect of. Being at an event and meeting someone and having a physical connection or like something in the moment and I think it has that and

Lisa Raynes: it's it's just an audio drop in so there's no visuals there's no backgrounds or you know what's showing artwork it's literally people talking I think that's what's so exciting about it and for me I think it's about connections So it's about just trying to find your tribe.

Lisa Raynes: What are you interested in? And, if you go on at certain times you might get people from America, different parts of America, [00:15:00] but if you go on in the morning, you tend to find Brits. And I've set up a room called Constructive Together. So I'm running at 8am on a Monday morning. So if you're interested, download the Clubhouse app and join and then follow me.

Lisa Raynes: So if you follow me, or you can follow Steve, and then you can see what events that we're putting on. If you don't follow us, you're not going to find out. And then you'll get notifications when the events come out. And then you literally drop in at 8 o'clock in the morning. And this morning, my constr The Constructed Together is about construction networking, so it's about just pulling together a community of construction professionals.

Lisa Raynes: So whether they're architects, students, interior designers, quantity surveyors, [00:16:00] builders from all over the country, it's an opportunity to have a chat, make connections. And I think there were some really good ones that came out this morning. Yeah,

Stephen Drew: I think. What I quite like about the people at the moment on Clubhouse and with anything in life, we're talking about going a bit out of your comfort zone and having a chat with people.

Stephen Drew: Now that can seem intimidating. However, if you remember, if you find In terms of your network, and if it comes from a place of passion, it's always going to be easy. So with going on Clubhouse, I find it easier now because I talk about the Architecture Social, I enjoy aspects of it, I enjoy building that community, and I want to get people involved.

Stephen Drew: So part of it, you go and you say what you're up to and your passion, and a bit like what I'm saying earlier about finding you, it's an opportunity right now that you're happy with. If you get. sucked into your painting as you're an architect, or you get that creative, juicy flow and, or you teach someone or your mentor, or you [00:17:00] have a project, or you'd like to enter a competition that you thought was cool.

Stephen Drew: And you're looking for more people to get involved. Then if you suddenly go to the clubhouse or you go to the architecture social, or you go on LinkedIn with a kind of a, an angle or a passion, I'm sure a lot of people will resonate and the opportunities will come from that. I think bringing these ideas and Being a little bit vulnerable and going out of your comfort zone people pick up on it, and from that, collaborations will happen.

Stephen Drew: I'm convinced of it because it happened for me and the people that do this that I see generally are quite busy and quite productive during this time. Yeah.

Advice for Job Seekers and Upskilling
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Lisa Raynes: Have you got any advice for people who are job searching at the moment?

Stephen Drew: Yeah. Okay. So I've, I think this is I've done quite a few of these on, on, on my YouTube and we, you can go there, you can Google the Architecture Social, but the essence of what we're talking about is it goes back to a bit like what I was saying in 2009 you've got to be, if it's not working, [00:18:00] you've got to Be, you gotta, you can't get hung up on before, you can't get hung up on, I've done it wrong, or I'm not right, or any of that, you've got to get rid of these negative thoughts, and you've got to think of something constructive, and you've got to think the situation's changed, I'm not getting anywhere, so I need to change my behavior.

Stephen Drew: So the first thing I would recommend is looking at some of the things. Comments. I've done a few on CV and portfolio. You can look at that, look at, ask people for feedback, but the bit that I really would like to press you is you need to think about how you're going to change your behavior. So exactly like we had a laugh at the start, Lisa, when I told you I sent my CV to a thousand places.

Stephen Drew: If you're looking for a job and you're not getting anywhere, you have nothing to lose right now by casting a net wider. And I, so my big bit of advice is to challenge, think about what you've been doing, analyze it in terms of, okay, this is not getting me results. I'm sending my CV to 20 places. [00:19:00] I've got one interview and I've got no offers.

Stephen Drew: What I would say is, if you think about it in a radical sense, and you sent your CV to a thousand places, Then I can tell you factually in 2009, I got five interviews from it and one job offer. So just change your approach on things, whether that's a job seeking or whether you're in the industry right now.

Lisa Raynes: Great advice. And we have franchises available around the country as well. If you're an architect,

Stephen Drew: That's a good example, isn't it, of changing, or if you feel like it's not working let's talk about that for a second, because if you're frustrated, and you're feeling like you're not in the right place, and you want to look at doing something a bit differently, but with an infrastructure there, That's like a good middle ground isn't it?

Stephen Drew: You don't need to literally find the accountants and make all the mistakes that other people have, you learn from basically your lessons and you get the best of both worlds but I wouldn't be the best person, Lisa, because I haven't practiced architecture for many years.

Lisa Raynes: [00:20:00] You need to be a qualified architect as well.

Lisa Raynes: Yeah, I'm a part two. UK architect, yes, that's our benchmark. That's our baseline. You need to be ARB registered.

Stephen Drew: Maybe one day, if I go back to architecture, I'll say, I'll let you know. When

Lisa Raynes: you've given up on architecture social. No, when everyone's in a job. Do you

Stephen Drew: reckon? Yeah, maybe. That'd be a good goal.

Lisa Raynes: Yeah. What are you doing to keep yourself sane at the moment?

Stephen Drew: The social takes up a lot of my time, but I'm far from perfect. Look, I've gained at least a good stone since the pandemic. And at the moment, I need to get myself in the gym and do all this stuff.

Stephen Drew: And no one's ever perfect. I'm far from perfect. The Architecture Social kind of fulfilled that. That social aspect as well, it keeps me busy and I'm enjoying that, but I still have more to go. My next thing is I've got to knuckle down and be hungry all the time. And I'm sure that will help.

Stephen Drew: That's my next goal. And you'll be able to see, won't you? [00:21:00] You'll be able to judge me because I'm on Zoom all the time these

Lisa Raynes: days. You look great.

Stephen Drew: Oh, thank you.

Lisa Raynes: So what about upskilling whilst you're, if you're doing jobs?

Stephen Drew: Perfect time. The amount of times you've got to, again, I think the key word to anyone here is accountability.

Stephen Drew: And I want everyone to really review themselves and think What are they always asked to do? Whether it's like, Oh, I really should pick up my artwork. I really should pick up my guitar, or I really should dust off the CV. This is the perfect time to do it now. And everyone has a view, right? Whether we're going to be returning to work in a month or two, where it's going to take a whole year.

Stephen Drew: You can't let that get in the way. So when it's an upscale, and I want you to think about that thing in the back of your brain, which everyone's got one, that you've been putting off. And a really good example is like Revit or something, a piece of software that you've been putting off. And again, it goes back to the point of everyone has a debate, and I'm sure Lisa you feel it, does it apply to your practice?

Stephen Drew: This isn't that, and [00:22:00] everyone will have an opinion off it. But if you're like, if you're looking for a job right now, the reality is, if you're aiming for a large medium practice, Knowing Revit is going to make a massive difference to you getting the job. Rather than saying is BIM relevant? Oh, not a lot of places use it.

Stephen Drew: Oh, not everyone uses it. Forget all that, because that's making noise and excuses, and just say, I'm going to learn it. I'm going to do it now. And the bit that I've, the other bit of advice that I think is good is that a lot of architects I know sometimes I'm a little bit more of an extrovert, but the beauty of a lot of architects is introverts, problem solvers, amazing people, great team members, but what I need you to do is think that actually, being introverted or being in your comfort zone or overthinking things and then not doing it is not going to be helpful.

Stephen Drew: I think you've got to go out there and start doing it and don't be too self [00:23:00] critical. It's anything else? The first time you do something, it's not going to be amazing, or it's going to be difficult at first learning Revit, or, again, the Architectural Social, there are so many mistakes I made, hundreds and the stuff that I've learned has come from trial and error, but if I stopped at the start I would never have learned them, so that would be my advice, is just to Don't be too self critical.

Stephen Drew: Don't worry what everyone else is thinking, because I can guarantee you, think about it, most people are in their own worlds anyways. You be you. If you want to do a YouTube channel, then you should do it. Don't get embarrassed. Don't let any don't let yourself Talk yourself out of it, just do it now.

Lisa Raynes: Yeah, that's interesting because I've had, a lot of our architects are notoriously overthinkers. Yeah, of course. And I think, joint reasons to join the franchise might be just make a phone call, make a phone call to me or Rachel, have a chat with her. And it's usually that first step [00:24:00] that's the most daunting.

Lisa Raynes: I remember when both Laura and Magda came to found me on various social networking platforms and said, You're a mum architect. How do you do it? I want to see how you do. I want to work with you. And that was amazing. They saw, and it was just that first email going, Hello. I want to talk to you, and then all of a sudden it just opens up that big world of, taking your future in a new direction and it's really exciting.

Stephen Drew: Yeah, I think to add to that stuff from the Architecture Social, I could never predict it would happen because being on BBC Radio London was pretty insane, no, it was pretty out of, I was really nervous doing it, which sounds mad because I do a live stream, but I was so nervous. But now I've done it, I'm like, great, it's something I never thought I would [00:25:00] do, and that meant a lot because, While my parents are really supportive, BBC Radio is something very familiar, so it was quite a nice experience, but that really would not have come if I just did nothing during furlough, but at the same time, if you haven't done anything, Don't worry about that because I wasted a month from put on half a stone, but the difference was it was just going like that can't continue.

Stephen Drew: I need to mix it up and I think it's all about not beating up because I mean I used to do that a lot in the past as well. You know that all the could have been's. I should have this. I should have that. It's too late now. It's never too late. You just got to start now, and that's going to be the big difference between the person that starts tomorrow after this, or like right now, anyone after listening to this, wherever you're If you do something on the back of it, I respect that.

Stephen Drew: And if you message me, no matter how small it is, and you tell me you do something, that's when I get my [00:26:00] kicks off. So for anyone listening, let's get the camera out. Let me get my bat. So anyone that's, wake up and let me know. And I will respect you so much for it. And I will, I promise you, I will reply to that because that kind of attitude, I think is an attitude that will get you really far in life, just mixing it up.

Lisa Raynes: That's awesome, I love your energy.

Stephen Drew: Yeah.

Lisa Raynes: And you were like this at 8 o'clock this morning as well. That

Stephen Drew: was a bit, that was a bit tougher, but I was excited, but I needed two coffees, you know what I'm saying?

Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Lisa Raynes: So we've come to an end. Like all good things, it has come to an end. Thanks everyone for listening.

Lisa Raynes: So this is Architecture in the Den with me, Lisa Rains, and Architecture Social's Stephen Drew. We will be recording another podcast this time next week at seven o'clock. And bye. Please find us on Spotify on YouTube channel or just Google Pride Road franchise. And you should be able to find my details [00:27:00] and if you are, if you've got an iPhone download clubhouse.

Lisa Raynes: Join and come and follow me. Lisa and Lisa Rains there and Stephen Drew's on there as well. Follow us both and come and talk to us in a room. So thanks, Stephen.

Stephen Drew: My pleasure. Take care.