If you want an easy life, don’t be an architect. Zaha Hadid
As architects our work revolves around helping improve people’s lives. This is always one
of our driving goals, to understand the user and to make them happy and content in a space
that we build. But its ironic that even though we build spaces that help make people stay content,
secure, connected and calm, the process of arriving on those designs,
leaves so many architects stressed out. It naturally leads to ask us a simple question.
Is architecture a stressful profession? I asked this very question across all my social media
channels. Over 5000 people from around the world replied and the answer was a loud YES. Architects
are constantly under a lot of stress, but is that stress much more than any other profession?
I researched and took inputs from a lot of people. What I wanted to know was simple..
Why are Architects always so stressed? But turns out the question is quite simple,
the answer not so much. I have presented my finding s in this video and by the end we might
be able to answer a few more questions like What really causes the stress?
What role does architecture education play in this stress?
And finally what can we do to reduce it. Welcome to Blessedarch and today on this channel
we are exploring the stress of architects. Okay first things first. Aren’t all jobs
stressful? Yes, yes they are. No matter what profession you are in you are going to be
stressed. Because every single job has challenges, and problems that you have to solve, and no mater
how amazing your boss or supervisor is, there will still be times you will want to flip them off.
It’s a natural part of life. You are born, you get potty trained, you go to school , you get a job,
you bitch about your boss and live in the uncertainty of whether climate change
catastrophes are going to destroy life as we know it. It’s just how life goes.
So, what makes architecture so unique, is it more stressful than
any other professions out there? The answer to this question might not be as straightforward.
Because irrespective of the amount of focus and effort required in the profession,
the ability to handle stress mostly depends on an individual. Is working while sitting on your
desk creating the 50th revision on the same section more stressful than having to do an
open heart surgery, or lets say defusing a bomb with only 2 minutes left. Probably not. But can
the amount of frustration and stress felt by each of these individuals be the same?
The answer is Yes. That is because how much stress is experienced by an individual
is largely dependent on that individual. We will discuss this in detail towards the end
of this video. But the point is much more than a profession, stress is more individual based.
Now that we have got that out of the way, the profession of architecture does provide one with
ample opportunity to get stressed and frustrated. Now there are various reasons for this,
but a major reason is that this profession requires almost all of your time and attention.
Working over time is common workplace practice in architecture and in a lot of firms around
the world, people are not even compensated for that extra time. In addition, there are sometimes
almost unrealistic deadlines given to employees to finish their tasks. Now again, this is done a
lot of fields, and this also varies from office to office. But in general, architects are much
more used to and sometimes even required to stay back long after their work day is over and sit
and work on designs. And yes a lot of companies in all sorts of different professions do this.
And this work culture of expecting people to just stay back has become routine in a lot of offices,
regardless of profession, around the world. But the thing is in a lot of those professions,
people are also compensated for that work. But is it something new? We read these stories
of start architects and how when they started out their careers they worked for their mentors for
free and for years spent most of their lives in the office. Which is probably why they are
where they are today. Because you see the skill of architects, historically has been something
that gets better with practice and experience. Architects were once called master builders.
Practicing and honing this craft took years, even decades and they learned even after school for a
very long time and focused on designs and details and only when they perfected them they became the
master architects that they were. So if this is how it’s always been, why has it become a problem
in recent times? The thing is architecture was not the only profession that worked this way, a lot
many did. You had to dig your heels in and do the work and for a few years of your life, the only
thing important was the work and nothing else. But a lot of this has changed in the last 60 years.
Professions around the world have evolved. A lot of tasks that required manual labour and were
time consuming, today are automated an done much faster. Professions around the world have changed
and evolved and developed new laws that care for the mental and physical health of their employees.
People have also started to become much more aware about mental health,
a work life balance. That might be one of the reasons why today so many people speak up about
work practices that don’t entirely feel fair. So as other professions saw policies and laws and
unions formed that protected the employee, architecture somehow still hasn’t evolved as much.
Even thought the way we work has evolved, our tools have changed
our work timelines have accelerated, but the working conditions seem to be the seem.
And just an FYI, I am all for hustle culture. I believe when you are young you can put in much
more effort into yourself and your craft, your young years is the time to buckle down and learn.
There is no denying that if you consistently put in more efforts, you will get greater returns,
which in this case will be experience and knowledge. But again it should be towards
something you enjoy and really want to do because you want to learn and achieve more
and not because you are required to. Hustling only works when you put your heart to it.
Also laws and unions work better if the companies are bigger and employ hundreds or thousands
of employees. But architecture still remains a field largely populated by small to medium sized
companies. And so that maybe one of the reasons that the working conditions have not changed much.
So working overtime is one factor that can majorly contribute to the constant stress levels
of architects, but it is no way the only one. Another major factor that comes up is the pay.
From all the responses that I got from all around the world, one thing was clear, architects around
the world are not paid well, specially in their starting years. But one can also see
why that is so. Architecture as a profession can only be mastered when one is in the field.
The school teaches one a lot but there is so much more to be learnt in the real world. This
might be one of the reasons why freshly graduated architects are paid quite less. But the problem is
not only the pay, but the pay in comparison to the time and investment that you have put into your
education. Most places around the world you need 5 years of education to be a full fledged architect.
And studying architecture is getting more and more expensive as time passes. So the problem is even
though the cost of studying is on a rise, the mean salary given to architects upon graduation
has not been increasing at the same scale. So one natural question that might come,
is that if the pay is so low why is the education so expensiveBut
if we broaden our vision, we see that this problem is not just with architecture.
The education for any profession seems to be getting more and more expensive as the time
progresses. There are various factors involved and reasoning given, but the fact is getting
a higher education is becoming more expensive for individuals around the world, putting them
in a heavy debt right after they graduate. But the problem with Architecture,
which already is one of the costliest field you can choose to pursue, is that the field has
been evolving rapidly and the education system hasn’t really evolved as much with the field.
If you spend 5 years learning something and then even when you are out you are not paid well or
given a great job because there is so much that ‘You have not klearnt’ as yet, then there seems
to be a problem. Don’t get me wrong. No matter what your job is you constantly learn throughout
your life and most skills you learn while working. But here one might question why are we spending so
much time and investment in learning stuff that might not even be used in the field.
Two major problems here are that the education system is a bit outdated and needs to keep
on being revised every few years all around the world, but another thing to be looked at
is the long duration of study. There is so much to discuss about architectural education and maybe
I’ll create another detailed video about it. But basically after the investment you put in,
you might be working for a lot of years before you even get that investment back.
And this was one of the top answers of what has architects in constant stress.
Okay so these are two major factors that contribute to stress in the field of architecture.
Now in addition yes there are many everyday scenarios that keep architects stressed, like
constant revisions, fickle clients, unsympathetic office, and that damn software getting stuck
because you selected outside the boundary and now it’s trying to hatch the whole autocad file. But
the reason I am not discussing these is because, I think these kinds of smaller everyday stresses
are there in all sorts of professions. Everybody deals with versions of these things,
it’s just what having a job entails. But also If I sit down to list all of them, I might need to
release it as a 4 hour long synder’s cut. So now that we have discussed some of the major problems
within this field, lets look towards the solution. How can stress be reduced within this field.
The key to solving this is at three levels. The policy level,
the office level and the individual level. Lets first talk policy level. The profession of
architecture needs a bit more formalization around the world. There need to be policies that deal
with work timings, minimum wages and overtime. Defining these will not be easy in any way, but
these are conversations that we need to have. And this not something that completely out of the box,
we have done this for countless other professions around the world. And yes this will be different
from country to country but some of these changes will really help architects work and be better.
Second Lets talk office level. Now where you work might completely change your perception of working
in the field. There are firms that are strict and quiet where you only focus on the work,
and communication is very formal, overtime is common practice and you aren’t paid well
or appreciated as much, on the other hand you may have an environment that is exciting and
promotes communication and appreciation. See the profession will never do away with working late
and putting in much more effort but that process can surely be made enjoyable.
When employees love to spend their time on designs and do so willingly, the output will always be
better and they will be in the mood to take on more work. So it’s not just for the employees but
it also works in the office’s favor, to have a comfortable environment to work,
one where people freely communicate. A lot of practices in this way are successful and
retain their employees for long because their office mimics the late night studio culture,
where yes you are working but you are also laughing, enjoying , collaborating.
As Gary Vee says the number one mistake is we expect our employees to work hard but the problem
is they don’t own the business. You can’t ask an employee to work as hard as you, or you create a
fake expectation versus how much you compensate them. And so the biggest mistake people make
and why they can’t build scalable businesses, is they have selfish expectations of their employees.
Okay lets come to the third and probably the most important solution to stress
and that is working on yourself. Remember that example I gave at the start of this video of an
architect, a doctor and a person diffusing a bomb, the reason all three of them can have the same
level of stress is because stress is something that is created within you. Situation are
something that is outside and can bring in their own set of challenges, but it is your reaction
to those challenges which will your stress level. I am in no way saying that there are not systems
that are unjust or over exhaustive, but what is also true is that you do hold the power to
your own mental peace and calm. And how much of that power you want to exercise
is also up to you. Tough situations are a part of life, therefore it can be tremendously beneficial
to find a way to master those emotions to live a better life in the long run. I know as architects,
people don’t do this much but taking out the time to sleep and , eat well and to exercise
will not only give you a healthy body but also give you a healthier mind. And one of the most
important practices that you can take up in your life is meditation. I know mine and countless
other people’s lives have changed by starting to meditate daily. In fact I actually wanted
to create something at the end of this video that can genuinely help people, and so with this video
I have also released a quick guided meditation for architects. It’s a very quick 5 minute meditation
that can help you take a breather during your busy schedule and possible help calm your mind
and rejuvenate you so you can go back to you work with a fresh perspective. The link for it
will be in the description so after this video, I highly recommend that you check that out as well.
Now there are a lot of things we can do to making working conditions better for architects,
but it will still remain a profession which demands a lot from you. And if you truly enjoy
the process, you will give your all willingly. I started this script with a Zaha Hadid quote.
well here is the full transcript of that quote. “I don’t have any frustrations. If
you want an easy life, don’t be an architect. Ask anybody in my office. You have to work
all the time. If you want a nine-to-five job and to go home and relax, just don’t do it.”
Now I have presented my findings in this video based on a lot of feedback from the community,
but I want to keep hearing from you. In the comments below lets start a conversation,
write down your thoughts about the profession, about the stress, what causes it and if you do
something to overcome it. Share your story down below. And that was it you guys that was my video
on Stress in Architecture, if you liked it do give it a thumbs and do subscribe to Blessedarch.
If you like the content that I make here, you can support the channel in two ways,
one by becoming a member of the channel, you can click the join button below and know more,
and second is via patreon, the link for it will be in the description below. Don’t forget to
checkout the guided mediation for architects I am sure it will bring a smile to your face and will
surely leave you calmer. And that was it, I will see you guys soon with more such content. Bubye.