Designing Relationships: The Art of Collaboration in Architecture

Book excerpt: In today’s dynamic practice environment, collaboration and teamwork skills are increasingly critical to the successful completion of building projects. Indeed, it is the careful nurturing of comradeship among complementary but distinctive egos that drives creativity underlying the hi-tech algorithms that help shape complex projects. Designing Relationships: The Art of Collaboration in Architecture focuses on the skill set necessary to facilitate effective teamwork and collaboration among all stakeholders no matter what project delivery mode or technology is deployed. This book provides valuable guidance on how to design and construct buildings in a team context from inception to completion. It is the less tangible elements of collaboration and teamwork that provide the magic that transforms the most challenging projects into great works of architecture, and it is these more nuanced and subtle skills which the book brings to the fore. Showing examples of best and worst practice to illustrate the principles with real-life situations, this book presents the reader with an approach that is flexible and applicable to their everyday working life.