We’ve all been there. Even if you are not in the architectural industry but a related design industry you likely know the dreadful anxiety that comes up surrounding group projects.
It All Starts in the Academy
Today’s young architects are still largely working on their projects in architecture school. It is still likely the single best way to evaluate a student’s work and capacity to develop comprehensive design management and systems thinking skills. But the truth is we never work alone in the actual profession of architecture.
This rift between training and the profession can cause a real attitude problem, often deeply set long before graduation. But how does this get properly addressed within the profession? While we can debate about who is responsible and how architecture schools set up students to fail in optimizing group work or collaborative practice, perhaps the most powerful thing that can be done now by young architects is to change their attitude about group work from the start.
01 – The Vectorworks Design Scholarship features both group projects as well as solo submissions.
To this end, the corporate bloggers at Vectorworks have written a very helpful article—“5 Secrets to Successful Group Projects.”
Here’s what it can boil down to (but you should read the full blog to get the details):
- respect
- balance decision making and exploration
- stay clued into the team
- keep it all honest
- plan to showcase your group work
The excellent blog post also notes that one can also use group work to apply to competitions and scholarships, like the Vectorworks Design Scholarship where students working across the globe can enter both as a group or as solo architecture students. The Vectorworks Design Scholarship has prizes up to $10,000.USD.
To read the blog post in full, go here.