The first time I kind of thought hang on this doesn't have to be my future was really confronting
really like really emotional really strong sense of failure.
I’m Amelia Lee from Undercover Architect.
Amelia and I met at the AIA national conference in New York City in June of 2018 and returned
to my studio to record a course together, a course we're releasing very soon.
I knew her like many of you perhaps as the Undercover Architect from her podcast but
I knew little of her backstory and in spite of having an enviable CV and an incredibly
varied work experience those aren't the things I found most compelling about her story.
She stands as an example of just how quickly the practice of architecture is changing and
I hope also as inspiration to you of what that might look like.
As an architect she's worked countless hours for some of Australia's most prominent architectural
firms designing structures for the Sydney Olympics managing and scheduling a team of
more than 100 architects she's worked in real estate development and finance nearly every
facet of our trade relentlessly pursuing what many would consider to be the pinnacle of
the profession.
So, a group of six of us set up our own practice called DC8 studio.
It was growing month-over-month hiring staff securing higher and higher profile projects
and when she arrived at this fortunate position?
I had a couple of personal things happen that really threw into light is this where I want
to be going you know it is it's expected that you know kind of that is the pinnacle of you
own your own practice and you you know and I looked around and I thought well I kind
of felt like my you know my business partners expected that once my kids were all at school
I was going to step in and start being there more regularly than I was and that hadn't
been mine or my husband's goal for how I wanted to work.
I, I felt like we had different ideas about how we wanted the business to grow we've never
been really clear about setting goals and objectives for the business when we got together
and it felt like a really big machine to feed too.
You know I think what like I saw every month what we had to make in order to keep the doors
open and how we'd had to structure our finances in order to make that happen and everything
you owned personally is on the line you know when you're a director in a business so at
the same time though like you know architecture there's 50% of the degree is female but only
less I think in Australia it's less than 1% of females reach a director position and here
I was as a director of an architectural practice and being female like hang on aren't I supposed
to be really happy that I'm here?
If her path to that point was the traditional one the one were all taught to follow her
next steps or anything but.
The first time I kind of thought, hang on this doesn't have to be my future was really
confronting really like really emotional really strong sense of failure.
Really, like why don't I want this?
You know?
Am I less of an architect because I don't want this?
Am I not cut out for this stuff?
Like what like seriously like I know I can work hard but yeah it's and so it was it was
really yeah it took a lot to sit with that decision.
I literally picked up my life and shook it up by you know shook it apart.
I signed up for a leadership and immersion program with a not-for-profit called The Hunger
Project and I went to Uganda yeah within a week of coming back from that told my business
partners I needed to leave and we had to work out how that was going to happen.
But yeah I literally got back from Uganda and said let's stop delaying the dream.
So we started looking really conscientiously around the Byron Hinterland region at the
same time I was thinking okay if I go there and work as an architect I'm going to have
to figure out how to cultivate a local client base and I'm gonna have to travel to sites
all the time.
And I've always felt with the architectural process you know you get to decide the clients
that you bring on and when you bring them on.
Once you're you bring them on and you start that process though you're kind of on the
clients timeline and for me that had never worked since I'd had babies that had never
worked very well for the demands of family life and how to juggle that.
So I started looking for and I literally looked everywhere else but architecture you know
I had looked at I looked at an online marketplace for goods that had like a charitable you know
like Tom's so there was nothing like that in Australia so I was looking at things like
that and I was manic about it really desperately looking for something.
The Hunger Project the not-for-profit that I'd gone overseas with they focus on they
believe that the key to ending hunger and poverty lies with those most impacted by it
so through education programs empowering people to figure their own way out of hunger and
poverty is the best way for them to be able to create sustainable solutions.
So they I'd seen how this worked and they focus on working with women because they believe
that when women are empowered it creates generational change because they educate their children
very low level of investment really big ramifications.
I think there's 350 staff worldwide in The Hunger Project impacting 19 million people
like it's extraordinary and so I thought okay how could this apply to what I do you know?
And I looked and I thought we've I've worked in a development company for seven years I've
worked inside a private practice I've seen what the decision-making that has to happen
I've worked with homeowners we've done our own three projects you know I've seen how
that works I've got this quite kind of you know personal and professional insight into
home remodeling and building I wonder if I could do something with that?
And I you know I started to think gosh all of that experience is locked up in that one-to-one
relationship that a client has with an architect and it's you know it's not potluck but it
is like a matter of like you finding the right architect for you whether you get to tap into
that experience you know?
And I just felt like there were all these decisions that don't actually cost any more
things like orientation and space planning and getting a home to function really well
for you that if you know this information up front fundamentally changes the home that
you get to create and I felt this is far too important you know people only do this once
or twice in their life it's a huge investment of money it's where they live every single
day and we see all of the effort and time and money and expertise that gets invested
into these great big public buildings and spaces that we might pass through you know
three or four times each year but our homes where we live every single day we trust them
to an appp we trust them to a builder we trust them to you know we don't we just feel that
it's not affordable to invest that level of expertise in our own homes.
Why Undercover Architect?
Like, what’s the, what’s “undercover” about it?
Yeah, for me Undercover Architect was about being people's secret ally when they whoever
they were working with whatever they were working on regardless of their location design
or budget that I could be their secret ally in giving them the tools and the knowledge
that they needed to get a far better outcome for the home that they were creating.
You know I looked at whether I called it Amelia Lee architects I feel like there's a lot of
ego associated with the architectural industry for homeowners this and if I had my time again
I probably wouldn't put architect in the name because people have an associate with what
architects do and how they behave that probably has potentially changed the kind like the
the way that business has grown and reached people.
But I feel also that I worked so hard for that title that and it separates us industry
wise in terms of our professional liability and our obligations and so if I could educate
people what architect actually means then perhaps that would help me differentiate from
all of the homeowners out there like we have a lot of in similar to the states a lot of
people who are doing competition TV programs or you know that type of thing they might
renovate or build one or two houses and then they start a business teaching other people
how to do that.
Like I've had over 20 years’ experience over 250 projects you know like that that
for me that wealth of experience needed to be packaged up in a way that really had meaning
for people.
So what I learned was if I was going to choose doing a business like this it probably meant
I wasn't going to be seeing my buildings get built the same way that I had before.
That's a big deal.
Yeah well architects we attach a lot to that jewel of the finished building that we create
it's kind of our business card I have colleagues who run full-service practices who insist
that it has to be full-service practice so that they can control that outcome.
For me I had to learn really early on that if I was going to grow this business my reputation
had to be staked on something different.
My reputation is staked on what is the experience of the homeowner going through that process.
How confident does she feel?
How empowered does she feel?
How, how does she feel that she's going to be able to navigate this in a simple and efficient
and strategic way so she gets this home that she's dreaming of and doesn't cripple herself
financially in the process that she works with really great people to make that happen
for her and for me that's what Undercover Architect became about and it was it was really
about seeing this you know women actually make 80% of the purchasing decisions in any
industry and home renovating and building is very relevant in this regard and yet she's
walking into a male-dominated industry dealing with men inside the you know construction
and design businesses and I'd seen this myself we'd been doing our own renovations and our
second project I remember my husband I came on maternity leave with our son my husband
went to back to work he was a physiotherapist at the time so he was going to work sort of
four or five days you know very long days a week and I was dealing with the tradespeople
turning up.
I had walked off a site where I was on site every week 150 odd houses an apartment building
dealing with tradespeople and builders every single day and I walked into our own project
where we were renovating this old brick home and I’d answer the door for these tradespeople
and I have a baby on my hip the stuff that they were telling me because they didn't know
I was an architect and I thought my gosh this is what the homeowner is going through and
she doesn't know how to speak up how to feel like she's not gonna look like an idiot if
she asks questions that she feels she should know the answer to and I got to see this firsthand
you know even as recently as we moved to where we are we were getting pool fencing turning
up and the guys turned up and said oh, we'll just wait for your husband to get home and
I said well I know what you need to know but I'm up in my office if you need me let me
know I'm not paying for your time so it's your choice you know and it's not it's not
done to be mean or but it's just so conditioned in that industry.
So yeah I just felt that to really disrupt that and change the way that homeowners can
feel when they go about building or renovating that's what my reputation needed to be staked
on.
If I armed and educated them then the buildings would be great anyway you know and they would
have had a fantastic experience felt in control felt like they were driving the process and
that's how we get rid of the dodgy builders and the designers that aren't so great because
we you know I'd sat across the table from enough builders and developers who said the
clients not going to ask for it so we're not going to do it and the clients not going to
pay any more for it I thought I need to teach these homeowners that they can demand better
than what they're getting from this industry and there are so many good operators out there
but the bad news travels so much further and faster and I just need them to they are the
ones that have they hold the key to their home being a successful project or not they
just need the tools to be able to make that happen.
I've said to other architects yeah I probably spend a day day and a half a week doing my
blog or my podcast and they're like, what?
How does that earn you money?
Like we're not taught as architects how to run businesses and yet business strategy is
so much of being profitable and sustainable and continuing to be able to serve clients
like you've got to be able to make sure cash is still coming in the door.
In hindsight it kind of probably looks like I had this linear path to where I got to it
didn't it's never felt like that.
You’re not a real architect though.