{"id":52360,"date":"2019-07-19T08:45:54","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T12:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/architizer.com\/blog\/?p=52360"},"modified":"2019-07-29T14:47:04","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T18:47:04","slug":"gig-economy-architects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.arc.ht\/blog\/practice\/tools\/gig-economy-architects\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gig Economy Will Save Architecture. Here’s How"},"content":{"rendered":"

Architects: Showcase your work and find inspiration for your next project through Architizer<\/a>, and enter the One Drawing Challenge<\/a> for a chance to win $2,500!<\/em><\/p>\n

The potential for digital technology to atomize the way people work is increasingly being realized, driving an expansion of individually contracted labor against the use of full-time employees. As single-point coordinators for large, complex projects, architects are in a unique position to benefit from this change because emerging productivity technology can increase their effectiveness in a way that allows a single creative vision to be carried out far more thoroughly than before. When the use of this technology is considered holistically, a vision for how the 21st<\/sup>-century architect might work comes sharply into focus.<\/p>\n

The use of remote, freelance workers by established businesses is growing as online platforms that facilitate such arrangements proliferate. A 2018 study<\/a> of 6,500 executives found that over a third of them expected their business to increase the use of on-demand freelancers sourced from online platforms in the next four years. Architecture is not immune to this shift, as the same study showed the percentage of web-based freelancers operating in construction and real estate tracking almost perfectly with the average across all major industries.<\/p>\n

The eventual result of this trend is an economic structure fragmented around the individual to an extent that the concept of a business as a single, hierarchical organization is no longer applicable. While this trend is frequently bemoaned as bad for workers because it allows businesses to hire freelancers without providing benefits like health insurance, the widespread nature of this change suggests such concerns are too narrowly focused on details that will necessarily adjust if it were to become the reigning form of working organization.<\/p>\n

Even if gaps in worker protections aren\u2019t corrected, the technology that led to those problems can\u2019t be un-invented, so it makes sense to look for new opportunities when inevitable change is at hand. For architects facing this change, there\u2019s a distinct upside: their inherent position as the linchpin of design projects means the increased efficiency brought on by decentralized, digital working methods allows the creative vision of single person to be leveraged across projects far more completely than before.<\/p>\n

\"Fiverr

Fiverr Pro Online Freelance Marketplace<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

So if these changes in working structure come to pass, how can the 21st<\/sup>-century architect thrive as an independent contractor among widely distributed networks of independent contractors? To answer this question, consider how an architect might already operate using current productivity technology.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s tech-savvy architect can use a freelance marketplace such as Fiverr Pro<\/a> to organize project-oriented tasks, paying a system of freelancers for individual work products rather than someone\u2019s hours, days or years. This setup drastically reduces operating costs that favor place-based businesses for anything more complex than a very small building or renovation project.<\/p>\n

Services already available from on-demand platforms include many of the daily tasks carried out in architecture firms: 3D modeling and rendering, as well as the production of diagrams and other digital assets made to explain design iterations. If the use of online freelancers expands as much as expected, then the capacity of the services on offer to complete the sort of work done in architecture firms can be expected to expand as well.<\/p>\n

Coordinating architectural services in a purely digital environment also poses challenges place-based organizations avoid by housing project participants in the same space. Discussing a design at someone\u2019s desk, making live edits to a digital file while multiple staff watch someone\u2019s monitor is a common occurrence in design firms that\u2019s currently difficult to replicate online.<\/p>\n