Architecture in the Den: How Architects Demonstrate Value with Flora Samuel

Lisa Raynes and Flora Samuel Professor Architecture in the Built Environment chat about why architects need to show their value to win  Whether pitching for new clients or competing for new projects, there’s always an opportunity for architects to demonstrate the value they bring. The way to evidence this value is with research or client feedback. Host Lisa Raynes, is the brains behind Pride Road Architects, which has built into its business model the concept that the client is key. Guest Flora Samuel has long been interested in how architects evidence and express the value that they bring to wellbeing, sustainability and innovation. Lisa and Flora will chat about why architects – especially women architects! – need to demonstrate their value and their different approaches to how this can be done. For example, Flora’s research is aimed at making sure we have the buildings we need, places that provide ways and ways of living to promote social good and address the climate crisis. She has honed a process of listening, evaluation and feedback, and by collating the information empowers people and drives research and innovation in small practices. Clients’ ambitions for their homes pull them to book a Pride Road Concept Design Workshop and the workshop itself is a carefully considered opportunity to co-create the optimal use of space. Success is a happy client, and www.prideroad.co.uk hosts many, many testimonials that complete the circle in pulling in more clients. Pride Road Franchise grew out of Founder Lisa Raynes’ refusal to accept that there was only one way for a woman to have an architecture career and a family life. She built her practice in the domestic sector, and then invested to turn her business into one that other ambitious architects wanting work/life balance can buy into. She’s had a seat on the RIBA Council (2015-18), been Chair of Women in Property NW and founded Manchester Curious, an urban architecture outreach festival. For Pride Road Architects pride is a key value. Franchisees take pride in helping homeowners increase the pride they have in their own homes with design interventions that improve quality of life, longevity of the building and its market value. https://www.prideroadfranchise.co.uk Flora Samuel is Professor Architecture in the Built Environment at the University of Reading, (previously Head at the University of Sheffield) and she is tasked with leading the School to deliver ‘an education for uncertainty’. She has long been interested in the connections between people and the environment with a particular emphasis on mental health and spirituality and is trying to bring some of this into the industry value agenda, one outcome being her most recent book Why Architects Matter (2018). In 2016 she set up the Research Practice Leads, a group of over 30 practices that meets quarterly to advance the cause of research of architectural research. Together they published the Social Value Toolkit for Architects with the RIBA earlier this year. Amongst other things she is Building Design columnist on social value and leads the ‘place’ strand within the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CACHE).