WHY IS NETWORKING IMPORTANT FOR YOU AS AN ARCHITECT …? |Ar. Mohsin Sheikh

Have you faced difficulty in finding job as an ‘Architect’??

Have you wished for a networking website dedicated to architects??

Do you think that as an architecture firm, you don’t have a professional platform to display your work??

As a student do you feel incompetent of getting a job once you graduate??

After doing architecture do you want to explore as a designer??

For all the above questions this blog is the answer. Welcome back to the blog. We are here with yet another blog on an interesting topic. Now if you are a 3rd year architecture student or an Architect who has an experience of 3 years you might have faced one of the above problems.

If yes, then this blog is for you. If NOT, then we have other blogs which might interest you, just roam around the website and you’ll find something of your interest.

Let’s face it! As Architects, when we start thinking of Networking the maximum, all we know is call our dad’s best friend or some of our distant relatives, with whom we haven’t had a conversation, because architecture was keeping us busy.

So busy that while studying we merely got time to network ourselves and hence less/ no exposure to the community of architects.

Google definition of ‘NETWORKING’ is the action or process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts

As a young architect job employment is another issue. Yeah, now people might talk about job portals, but frankly we all know how difficult cracking a job is.

We all have our imagination of what type of architecture we want to practice but due to the lack of knowledge about these firms we tend to find what is available and settle for what we get and not for what we want.

When it comes to management and know-how of a firm we know very less and mostly we learn through our bad experiences. Now let’s not talk about taxes!! That’s another topic which we’ll cover in some other blog, for now the focus of the blog is on networking and a platform for architects is current need of the hour.

While scrolling through internet I found this website called “ARCHITECTONICS.IN”.

My first impression of this website was quick, interesting graphics and simple. Most of the websites get it wrong in these basic criteria. After logging in this is what it looks like, where you can see projects uploaded by different architects.

When you login you are asked if you are a designer or design firm or a photography enthusiast. There are four categories the website is divided into. Let’s discuss all these one by one.

Managing our website and keeping people in our network updated about the latest work is difficult. This is quite simple on ‘ARCHITECTONICS’ because you are just a click away from creating a new project. Every quarter we might have a new project if specifically working in INTERIORS.

Design is an ever-evolving process, and a learning experience. The main advantage of this website is that it provides a platform for discussion on design, where other professionals can help you grow with advice, remarks, suggestions.

A healthy constructive criticism makes our design ideology stronger, and the whole point of the website is growing by minimizing the negative and maximizing the positives.

Architecture is a creative endeavor and we are not just restricted to buildings. Artwork, furniture design, photography, writing are some activities from many. Like in my case, I work as a Junior Architect and writing is my passion through which I explore my skills and learn by reading about different ventures.

Now this is a common phenomenon with architects practicing different art forms. There are platforms where you can upload your professional work and platforms where you can upload your hobbies.

In today’s world clients are not just looking for designer but a package in you as an architect, so when you display your art form on the same platform it emerges as an edge over other fellow architects. You can upload your work as a designer on this website, thereby adding more value to your portfolio.

You can surely design well but if it is not documented in different forms then you can’t survive in today’s market. In this, photography is the strongest medium I feel. You can display your skills by showing them the photographs of projects completed by you which will help you gain confidence of the client.

Now, here people will be of an opinion that 3D visualization can also help, but I’ll disagree to this as completed projects will have more weightage than a 3D render. A professional photographer is the Artist who can exemplify the design to another level.

Another aspect of the photography segment is that if you have a skill for photography then you can upload your ‘ARCHISHOTS’ which can be any photographs taken by you related to architectural photography.

They have something called as ATO STORE which is a merchandise store with products related to architecture. They have coffee mugs, t-shirts, pullovers. I personally liked the Grey Pullover, so if somebody from Architectonics Team is reading this blog you can get in touch with me for this. This site is a complete package of experiences.

Currently on the site we can experience designers, architects and photographers interacting on a dedicated platform. To sum up this we have a combination of different categories which were not available until now. I’ll suggest you to signup and experience it yourself.

If you are someone who has their own firm or you are a student of architecture, this website acts as a one stop solution. A diversified exposure to your startup can be achieved over here. If you are a student, you can help yourself with landing for an internship.

In my opinion this is the future for people in and around architecture. And if you are not part of the future then you are missing out on something interesting.

Link for the website: https://architectonics.in/


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