Small Practice, Big Impact: Leveraging Collaboration in Architecture with Prachi Rampuria | 054

How can collaboration revolutionize small architecture

practices and help tackle complex global challenges like climate change.

I'm joined by

co-founding director of eco responsive environments to explore

the benefits and the challenges of collaboration in architecture.

In this episode.

Of architecture business club, the weekly podcast for solo

and small firm architecture practice owners, just like you.

He wants to build a profitable future-proof architecture business

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I'm John Clayton, your host.

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For more information now let's discuss collaboration.

Prachi Ramparia is a co founding director of Eco Responsive Environments, an award

winning urban design and architectural practice with a singular mission, using

a complex systems approach, they designed to support health and well being.

As a consultancy, their services include feasibility studies, visioning

and development briefs, outline and detail planning applications,

strategic master planning, public realm and regeneration strategies,

research publications and teaching.

Prachi is a design council expert, teaches at Oxford Brookshire

University's MAUD course, and sits on multiple quality review panels.

She has also co authored a book titled Eco Responsive Environments.

Prachi, welcome to Architecture Business Club.

Thanks, John, and thanks for inviting us.

It's a real pleasure.

Ah, it's a pleasure to have you here.

Before we, um, get stuck into the topic that we're going to talk about today

I believe that you've, you've recently been learning how to play the piano.

I'd, I'd love to hear more about that.

Could you tell me about, um, how that's been going so far?

Yes, I have been.

So it's been about 18 months and I think it was just a long childhood dream to

do that, which I'm realizing in my 30s.

Um, and, uh, it is, it is challenging, I think, but it's equally rewarding.

Like it's something that you need to go back to every day.

Um, But, uh, yeah, it just like with architecture, things become really fast

paced sometimes, you know, and the piano is something that just slows me down.

It slows the pace of things.

And when you have to like, just focus on small details and you

have to focus on small things.

And yeah, it, there comes a point where I, where I forget that there's anything

else, which is, which is good sometimes.

So that's what piano does for me.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, it's a great, um, form of like mindfulness.

I find that when I practice the guitar that I'm like, I'm in the moment with

practicing the music and playing, and, and it really helps me to not be.

Thinking about lots of other things and slow things down a little bit.

So, and is it true?

Is it true that, um, at one point you moved into a new place.

Your piano was like your only piece of furniture.

Is that true?

it's, it's true.

It's true.

I was really scared.

Even telling my family was like, what you haven't bought yourself like a

bed or a table or a chair and you've invested like, you know, like last

month researching on which piano to buy.

It's true.

Um, yeah.

Uh, and I don't know why I don't, I don't have, honestly, I don't have

any reason for it apart from the fact that probably that was like during the

COVID as well, so I was more at home.

I had more time and I'm like, I really need the piano.

now as soon as possible.

yeah,

What did your neighbors think of it?

Your, your piano playing?

Well, this time I learned from my previous mistake.

So this time I got myself a digital piano rather than an acoustic piano.

It's a digital upright piano and, um, they can't hear a thing.

So I live in an old Victorian house and the acoustics are pretty bad.

And yeah, I just plugged myself in the piano and I have my headphones on and.

Yeah, I can practice at 3 a.

m.

in the morning if I want.

That's pretty cool.

So we're going to talk about the benefits of collaboration and in particular how

how it can help our industry's approach to pressing issues like climate change.

And you believe that collaboration is essential to tackling these

complex global challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss.

So, I'm interested, like, how, how can architecture practices, particularly

smaller ones, contribute to these efforts through collaborative projects.

Yes, we We do believe strongly that solutions to

our world's most complex problems won't come from a single specialism

or a single subject and, and these problems, they are complex for a reason.

It's because these issues are multifaceted.

And addressing them does need to bring together a wide range of different

expertise, um, professional opinion, local knowledge, uh, and across,

uh, sort of various fields as well.

So it's, you know, sort of arts, design, sciences, humanities,

economics, so on and so forth.

Um, so we do believe that we do need to come together, um, in order to

resolve, because every problem has sort of ramifications across the board, uh,

you know, in order to make a design solution viable, you need to understand

the economics of it, how it works or not, uh, and so on and so forth.

Um, in terms of how can architectural practices, particularly smaller

ones, contribute to these efforts is there are two dimensions to it.

I feel, um, any architectural practice, big or small, needs to understand and

realize that although, you know, it is a profession that's often seen as

being responsible for like joining up the dots, or, you know, kind of being

a generalist, to a certain degree, we do need to understand that we are,

we are a cog in the bigger picture.

So we, we have to provide our contribution to the best of our ability and skills and

expertise in relation to the project needs and in relation to the wider team and

working within the political and economic context in which the project is rooted.

Now, smaller practices like ours in particular, we do rely on

external expertise and we do rely on working with a wider consultant

team to cover a lot of skills.

And sort of areas of deep knowledge that we don't have in house.

So like, for example, you know, the, the ACOMs and the Atkins of the world

and the Arabs of the world will probably have a lot, a lot of sort of different

professional disciplines within the same, you know, under the same roof.

But smaller practices don't always have the luxury of having that.

Um.

And so, uh, collaboration is the only way forward.

Like, how else would we be working on multifaceted problems and sort of

finding solutions to complex issues?

Um, but I think also, I think the second side of things, and that could be a

potential advantage, is that being a small practice, we also have lower overheads.

And sort of lower costs of actually running a practice.

And in that sense, sometimes collaboration does give us a financial edge, because

we are able to add competitive value to a wider team, um, by bringing

together sort of a consortium of similar SMEs or individuals who, who

have had deep experience and knowledge.

Of the sort of project needs that needs to be addressed.

So there's a real potential of, you know, sort of real opportunity that

you can bring together bespoke teams that are tailored to be project

specific on very competitive fees.

You know, just like being really blunt about it.

And I think that's an advantage that a lot of small architectural practices can

Um, you know, viably consider whilst it might be a challenge for larger sort of

Multinational MNCs and so on, but yeah, collaboration is the way forward for us.

yeah, that's so true.

I think as a small practice you can be very agile, and as you say, there's

the option through collaboration to put together a potential dream

team for, um, specific projects.

So there's, um, definitely some huge advantages there.

You, um, you co authored the project.

A book your book, Eco responsive environments that actually discusses

how collective intelligence can unlock new methods and solutions in design.

Can you share any examples of how collaboration has led to innovations in

your practice or in any other practices or businesses that you've been working with?

Yeah, sure.

So I think this is a very interesting question, actually, Jordan.

And before I answer the question directly, actually, I'll take a step back

because it's important to understand or establish what we mean by innovation.

What does innovation mean?

You know, like, in a lot of cases, when something that is not mainstream in

current design culture, when that gets successfully implemented, and someone

sees the results of that bearing fruit, then that is, you know, in many cases,

it's termed as innovation, because it's something that's not commonly seen.

Innovation for one place.

Can also be known for another like something which is innovative in

the UK could be a default setting.

I don't know somewhere in Europe or in Germany or Netherlands, etc.

So it changes.

It is very relative and very subjective.

But what is important to understand regarding innovation is.

I guess it's, it's not innovation in itself, but it's

the process of innovation.

So if, if someone equates radical ideas to innovation, I think it's, it's absolutely

critical to understand and accept that radical ideas are never born in vacuum.

You know, you, creativity ignites when different ideas

and different minds collide.

And collaboration, collaboration of diverse people, you know, their

own sort of thinking, perspectives, views, is absolutely like, it's,

it's the foundation of all of this.

So the way, so now coming back to your question, if that is how we see

innovation, Then, uh, yes, through sort of a lot multiple projects, actually,

to be honest, all projects were possible in some in one degree or another.

We do find new ideas unlocking because of collaboration.

So as an example, we are working on this project called Heath Park Masterplan.

It's it's in Runcorn in Liverpool.

We, it recently got outlined planning.

Um, and, uh, the the project brief was actually very aspirational

in sustainability terms.

So our role on that project was being a lead master planner

as well as project manager.

So we were undertaking the project management role as well.

And, um, so one of the key things, because the project brief was so

aspirational in sustainability terms, we really had to be innovative, i.

e.

do we have the right team members in place?

Like, for example, if we want to really innovate, um, regarding

water, And how we recycle not just gray water but also black water.

How do we localize?

How do we go beyond subs?

Because sustainable urban drainage is now being supported

in local policy a great deal.

But there are issues, there are water security issues beyond that.

So really trying to push the boundary means we have to innovate within

the culture we are working in.

So that needed.

That meant that for the viability stage of that master plan, we had to ensure

that we have the right expertise on board.

So we then proactively, like it was honestly, it was a very cold corner.

We were like, who works in this sector, you know, who has delivered

such sort of infrastructures.

We need to reach out to them.

We reach out to them.

Um, Regarding the project.

And we were fortunate enough to get a response back.

So, you know, we get them appointed on the team.

And that's because we were able to, uh, kind of oversee project management.

And we had sort of good relations, sort of, sort of communication channels

and mechanisms with the client team.

So we were able to sort of make them understand the value.

of doing certain things at a certain time in a project because of that, for example,

by getting the water expertise on board, if it was organic or water in the case of

the, this particular project, we were able to actually understand the, the costs.

The cost implication of that infrastructure.

Uh, if it is implemented, what are the risks and barriers?

What about long term maintenance management?

Also, also like these practical issues, uh, and also implementation

in the context of UK because, you know, blackwater recycling is

something that doesn't happen at all.

You know, it's not even explored.

Um, it wouldn't have happened.

if the, if a, the client team was not supporting and willing to take the risk

because it is a resource and it does have an impact on the fee structure.

Um, and B, if these areas of innovation were not highlighted right up front,

another area of innovation in the project was around vertical farming.

So again, sort of finding the right expertise and working with

them right from the outset, these things get really difficult to

retrofit later on in a project.

So sort of having the holistic view.

of what expertise, where can we innovate in this project, you know, um, in relation

to the project brief, and then sort of really focusing and targeting kind of

people who can help you in that journey, I think was really important for us.

Um, on another project, which was the Lechweth master plan, uh,

which was a Greenfield expansion whilst, you know, Heath Park was

a brownfield regeneration site.

Um, so there, I think there was a lot of innovation around community

engagement, which again, you know, is not very mainstream and sort of

really kind of embedding that in a very structured way as part of the,

um, the design development process.

Uh, I think that was something that that was really deeply looked into and

some of the other areas we we looked into in order to support innovation

in the project was areas around, for example, local food production.

How viable could it be?

What might be the, uh, alternatives, et cetera?

but also around community led housing as well on a certain proportion of the site.

So, and again, these were part of the development brief, so they were very

client driven, um, sort of agenda.

Um, and I guess as a third example, I think our book, which I think we

spent about 14 years sort of putting that together, um, that is I guess

a result of a sort of a meeting of many, many countless minds and ideas.

Uh, you know, it, it would have never taken us this long if, if we

wouldn't have undergone that process.

Um, and it touches on a wide range of disciplines from landscape ecology

to transport to architecture, as well as the multi sensory atmospheres and

how do we design and deliver those.

So, Um, I mean, I remember reading like research papers on riparian corridors.

I had no clue about them at that point in time, and I learned so much.

So yeah, I think these would be some of the examples that we've sort of seen

how collaboration leads to innovation in practice or or in our projects.

Those are some brilliant examples.

Thanks for sharing those.

And, yeah, I think that idea that the innovation happens through

this collaboration when people come together I mean, nobody

has a monopoly on great ideas.

Uh, and I think it was that idea of almost like a mastermind.

I talked about this with a guest on a previous episode, we were talking

about mastermind groups where people come together and share ideas.

I think it was in a book originally by Napoleon Hill How to Think and Grow Rich.

Fairly famous business book, but it talks about this idea of bringing

people together and how it's almost like there's this other mind that's

formed by, the people within the room.

the different perspectives that you get and then these ideas come out of

these conversations that just wouldn't have happened otherwise and it's

just by bringing people together and collaborating and sharing knowledge

and it's, uh, it's amazing some of the things that can come out of it.

So, um, yeah, those are fantastic examples.

In your experience, I mean, what are some of the biggest challenges when trying to

overcome those professional silos that we can find ourselves in and actually working

with like experts from other fields, what have been some of the challenges

there for you and your business?

Yeah, and I think this for us goes back since

we started working on the book.

So I think working on the book was like a very steep learning curve for us

because it really like sort of collided us head on with disciplines that we were

not actually, we were familiar with, but we didn't have deep knowledge in.

Um, and I think landscape was one of those.

Um, so when we, So just going a step back when we talk about professional silos.

Okay.

What is it?

Professional silo is basically that you are blinded by how your work

overspills with the work of others.

And inevitably, any design work and any design project will be

having a creative design team.

So your work will relate with others.

But if you are blinded towards that, you won't be able to, um, uh, provide

optimal outcomes for the project.

So one of the biggest problems I think that happens, um, in trying to overcome

professional silos is, um, is that we need to to understand the other

disciplines and we need to listen more.

Sometimes the listening process doesn't happen effectively enough

and we just jump into ideas and we, we need to stop doing that.

I think a little bit more conscious effort in, in listening.

Uh, so I'll give you an example.

So like, for example, um, when you're working with ecologists,

now they are not designers.

Right.

And similarly, designers do not have, uh, the, the deep knowledge of ecology that a

project needs, particularly in the context of climate change, biodiversity emergency.

So how would you come up with optical optimal outcomes for a site?

It is by working together.

But when you do work together, you need to understand at what stage of the

project you need to involve an ecologist or any other expertise for that matter,

depending on the kind of input you need.

So, um, it is, I guess it partly does go back to the view of, you

know, the, the architect or an urban designer being a generalist

in that we have, we are specialists, but we need to have wider vision.

I think one may say that us more than everyone else, you know, it might be

assumed that we have this responsibility to a greater degree, but to be honest,

a part of me also disagrees with that.

I think we've moved beyond a point in, you know, in the trajectory.

in the trajectory of the way the planet is evolving, that, you know,

it's just too much of overload on architects and urban designers to

be joining up the dots all the time.

I think, you know, we need to really honestly, like, share this responsibility

and be open to sharing, because, you know, there needs to be a common

understanding of how settlements work, how, you know, they're complex

ecosystems, they are built environments, and they are extremely complex.

And for that, it might mean on a day to day basis that yes, you

need to sort of, um, you know, go beyond or move beyond your ideas.

You do need to open up.

You need to be okay with being vulnerable in front of people.

You need to be okay in saying, I did not know that.

And it is really good to learn.

Um, and you need to be okay in saying that, well, I know nothing

about it, but I will follow up and I will So, you know, and Yeah.

Like in, in, in my experience, that is how you overcome professional silos is just

by admitting that you don't know, and kind of just opening yourself to learning more.

yeah, I think that's, um, it's just, you Sharing some vulnerability

really and like when you collaborating with other professionals, it's okay

that you know, you know how to do your thing and they know how to do theirs.

So it's okay if you're.

level of knowledge isn't the same as theirs.

You can't expect it to be, can you?

You know, that we're doing different things and we want to work together,

but yeah, just holding your hands up and saying, look, I, I don't know about this.

That's why we need your expertise and why we want to collaborate in the first place.

I think another, um, Something that I've come across before is and you sort of

touched upon this regarding the timing of when other consultants get involved,

because I think sometimes on a project that when you don't know when that's

not your profession and you're bringing in a collaborator that's from another

profession, you might not realize.

the best time to bring them in and often it's far earlier than we expect it to be.

I've I had a conversation with, uh, an interior designer we were talking

about this last year and, and she was explaining how often she would get

involved in projects that had perhaps been the building itself, the space

had been designed by an architectural practice, um, that perhaps didn't

have an in house interior designer.

And then She was then brought in to become involved in the project

and in from her perspective as an interior designer, it was.

Often too late that they've been decisions that have been made about

the project and about the design that she would have been at the project

and the client would have benefited by her being involved much earlier.

So I think that would be something that I would suggest is something that

if, if you are doing a project and you, uh, Recognize that you need to

collaborate because there's some other skills that need to be brought in that

bring them in as early as possible.

Like, don't assume, you know, when, when that skill is required, like bringing

them in from the beginning, if you can.

totally.

And sometimes I think what we've also found, like, for example, in, in,

in some of our projects like Heath Park, for instance, is it is really

important in terms of overcoming professional silos and bringing in

the right people at the right time.

The development brief.

is really important because that really sets the stage of what input do you need.

So how do you know, you know, like, okay, in depending on the scale

and nature of the project, you will be able to predict some, you

know, a wide range of professional expertise that will be needed.

And based on your experience, you can sort of understand when they would be

needed, perhaps, but in some cases, It's, it's not a bad idea to, uh,

instead of just assuming that this is what has happened previously in

projects, this is how it should be done.

Just, you know, just sit back for some time and just think, is

this the only way it can be done?

Are there any other avenues, you know, in the current context that we are

working in that we might be missing?

I mean, having experience in this particular project a decade ago,

you know, uh, Might mean that you may want to reevaluate how the

team was structured, for example.

So it's like we personally from personal experience, we've really benefited from,

uh, just having informal discussions with people who are vastly more experienced

than us, you know, and it's just picking their brains on things like, Oh, this

is the kind of project, maybe 10 years down the line or five years ago or

something, this is how it would happen.

But considering the current political, social, economic,

environmental context, are they.

In your experience, is there any other expertise?

Are there any other areas we can innovate on this project within

the economic budget or the capital budget that you're working in?

And sometimes it's just like a little bit of brainstorming, you know, right at

the outset with people who you trust and you know, and you, you can, you know,

you can call them a friend of your, of your practice or a collaborator or a long

term sort of business partner or business organization you've been working with.

Um, and like a mentor, it could be a mentor as well.

And just doing that because it just helps you like sense check that what

you're thinking, you know, you're not missing anything potentially that

otherwise could have been addressed or sort of, you could have pushed the

boundaries regarding innovation on, but yeah, I think that helps as well.

Just taking a step back and just questioning everything that you sometimes

we just assume because of the time deadlines, because of the program, we just

keep going from one stage to the other.

But if we do get the time, you know, to just have a step

back and reflect, we should.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So we've looked at the.

Some of the benefits of, of collaboration from an environmental point of view.

How can collaboration help architecture practices in other

ways, especially the small practices?

We have touched upon this a little bit around the idea of innovation.

Are there any other advantages that you feel that there are, particularly for

small practices through collaboration?

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Now, back to the show.

Yes, definitely.

I think we touched on some of them in other things like agility, sort of

being able to be flexible and nimble as a practice because you are working

with specific projects or specific individuals or organizations on a project.

project by project basis.

Um, and so you can sort of really kind of continue to keep your overheads low.

Uh, and the teams kind of come together and disband depending on the project

needs and, and, and outcomes needed.

Uh, so that's a big plus, which means depending on the business model of your

own practice, design practice, uh, you might even be able to think and reflect

on what kind of projects you want to work.

on what kind of clients you want to work with.

Um, and I think collaboration is a good way to unlock some of those

opportunities and kind of really structure and think about where do you

see yourself as a practice in five years?

Uh, what sort of projects you want to be doing?

Uh, and therefore, which, which kind of.

individual's organization, uh, would benefit you, you know, to

collaborate on, uh, and with.

So definitely, I would say, uh, I mean, in these sort of uncertain

economic times, definitely being able to be nimble, flexible is a

big, big advantage of collaboration.

I would totally agree.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This totally makes sense in the day and age that we find ourselves in.

Collaboration, it can bring some challenges, the logistics of

collaborating with other practices or consultants particularly around,

I guess, communication could be one of the big challenges there.

How can smaller practices manage this when collaborating

or working on a collaborative project with other consultants?

I think in my experience of collaborating on

projects, uh, In other words, it is about building long term relationships.

That's the only way collaboration can meaningfully work.

Um, if someone sees collaboration and okay, we are collaborating with

someone is just for this project and then, you know, that's it.

End of story.

Um, then I think, uh, you know, the, the real advantages of collaboration,

uh, You know, unlocks over time because eventually it is down.

It is a human relationship, you know, and you become more open in communicating with

someone when you develop a certain degree of trust and trust develops over time.

So, uh, you know, you need to give that time.

To, you know, when working with with other consultants, if the project

program is short and tight, I think one also needs to demonstrate, uh,

you know, sort of a certain degree of understanding and empathy, uh,

you know, and sort of being open and make conscious effort and proactive

communication becomes really important.

So for example, if you're working with a new consultant and they

send some information through.

You might be only able to review the information early next week,

but just sending a line saying, you know, thank you for the information,

uh, we have downloaded it.

Okay, we'll only, we'll get back to you next week.

Just give them a sense of, you know, that, okay, we are dealing

with someone who we can rely on.

They have received the communicate well, um, And you can talk to them,

uh, and that they will respond back.

So, uh, I think that level of communication is really important when

you're, when you're working with sort of new organizations or individual.

Once you've known people for a very long time, you know, to some, yes.

And you need to maintain that.

So sometimes people know you well enough that, okay, you are not responding.

They know it is on your radar and you will address it only because you work

for so long and they know how you work.

Um, so it is important to manage relationships.

Very, very carefully.

Uh, when it comes to collaboration.

Uh, and I think transparency is extremely important in that honesty,

building trust and keeping that trust.

So sort of, um, it comes down to your own credibility.

You know, it's for me like you're collaborating with a person.

You know, like forget about organizations, but you're collaborating on a project, you

know, and eventually it, everything that is an outcome on the project is a result

of the, uh, sort of healthy team dynamics that is created in the background.

And those healthy team dynamics does not happen overnight.

You know, it is like a small email, you know, appreciation sort of, um,

kind of small gestures like that, you know, kind of, which are genuine.

I think that's really important that, that you stay genuine to

the project, to the team members.

Um, I think, like the other financial logistic, logistical

challenge might be around things like contractual terms, payments,

where a lot of fallouts might happen.

That is where, you know, having a very, um, well scoped

contract is really important.

Understanding payment schedules are very important.

Being able to respond to those payment schedules, like for example, in some

project, you know, for whatever reason, if, if you are getting payment, um,

uh, you know, if, if payment for you is delayed as an architectural practice and

you have sub consultants, for instance, and you're a small practice, so you might

not be able to pay them unless you receive the payment, which can be a very practical

issue, then make sure you communicate.

You know, the reasons and you're able to share evidence so that you know, and that

you're able to then foster so you know, so that this doesn't become a setback in in

the collaborative nature of the project.

So it's really important for to use collaboration, not just a means of getting

sort of desirable project outcomes.

Yes, that's critically important, but also as a means to nurture

long long term relationships.

Thank you.

Yeah,

yeah,

real value is unlocked.

I can't remember who said it now, but I heard somebody say trust

equals interactions over time.

And you know, the longer that you're working with a person, collaborating

with them, that the more that that trust can build, I mean, there's obviously

tons of benefits from this approach and hopefully more practices will embrace a

more collaborative approach in the future.

How do you.

Envision this approach shaping the future of the industry.

the way it sort of evolves us as a practice, I think, is

that we are just constantly learning.

I mean, they're like with every, like, for example, when we were working on

the book, and we were working on the master, these master plan projects.

To be honest, we like, I am a self confessed geek.

So, you know, like I just like, especially if it's like a discipline, which is

complimentary, but something that I, you know, we don't have deep knowledge in.

I would, or my starting point would always be, Oh, it's great.

We are working with you because we have very limited knowledge on this.

And these are questions.

How do you do this?

How do you do that?

You know, it's, it's time to learn from them.

Uh, really because that's where real value is sort of learning knowledge expansion

is one area where which like sometimes you know for in some situations you know

collaboration is seen as a burden like oh my god you know like we'll have to

like deal with x and y and z in order to achieve this but you know if we are able

to See beyond that, you know, just kind of open up, open ourselves a little bit more.

We realize that actually, uh, the, the beneficiary is, is our own selves.

Um, but obviously this has to be a mutual process, so it cannot be one sided.

So you cannot be collaborating from your end and you know, they're not.

They're not being a reciprocal effect.

It's not going to work that way either.

So you do need to choose who you collaborate with.

And it is a, it is a matter of trial and error.

Sometimes you do find the right partner.

Sometimes you may not click for whatever reason.

And that's the nature.

Of, of how, you know, life works, you know, um, it's not that every

collaboration that you dive into will be something that, you know, uh,

sort of gets continued in future, you know, different collaborations come

for different purposes and reasons.

But I think having.

You know, having an open and honest approach to all collaborations, no

matter how short, no matter how long, is extremely important because, um, and

I think that is something that really shapes the future of architecture.

Eventually, what is architecture?

There are so many, you know, sort of practices of different sizes and shapes.

They are doing their individual projects and collectively over time

we are seeing a wide range of sites transforming across London, across UK,

and that is changing the nature of place, uh, neighborhoods, cities, regions.

That's architecture.

It is a collective effort.

In the end.

So, you know, and that has been a result of laborious collaborations.

So the, the, the only way I would envision the shaping the future of

architecture is being open to learning knowledge expansion collaboration learning

from the lessons of every project.

Um, yeah, and.

Being, you know, it's like you learn from the success, but you

also need to be frank about failure

Well, we learned, they learned as much from the failures,

if not more than the successes.

Yeah, yeah.

And just being true to that and yeah, and I think that's what

we learn from every project.

Like what, what worked in a certain collaboration, what did not work in

a certain, there can be constraints.

to collaboration as well.

There could be financial constraints to collaboration that, oh, we

would love to collaborate on X, Y, and Z, but the project fee

actually does not account for that.

So in that case, you do need to try and think that, okay, are there any

strategies which can maximize the benefits of the limited resources that we have?

And, you know, like, You, if you try to do that alone, you might

be getting five ideas in one hour.

But if you have, if you just organize your limited resources as, and you have

a brainstorming session for the same one, one hour, you might get 20 ideas.

And then, you know, so it's just using time wisely, I think is, is, you know,

that would really help shape the future of architecture using time wisely

and together as much as possible.

love that.

This has been a really interesting discussion.

I've really enjoyed it.

What would be the main thing that you'd like everyone to take

away from this conversation?

think just one.

I think, as a design, as an urban designer in architectural practice,

are a very small piece of a much bigger puzzle, and We should listen,

learn, and develop solutions together.

I think that's, that's, yeah.

That sums things up nicely.

I like that.

Prachi, was there anything else that you wanted to add that we

haven't covered in the conversation?

No, I don't think so.

Not really.

Unless you have any more questions, Joan.

I mean, I can go on and on about collaboration and kind of, you know,

both challenges and benefits, but you know, everyone has their own journey.

Of collaborating with people.

And, um, yeah, I would just encourage everyone to explore that.

Absolutely.

While we're talking about exploring, I do have another question and

it's a question for all the guests.

I love to travel and to discover new places and architecture

is about place as well.

So I was wondering if you could tell me one of your favorite

places and what you love about it.

One of my, Oh, that's so difficult.

Could be near or far.

Yeah, it'll probably be very far from here.

So it's about, um, so, um, it's in India.

So I was born and brought up in India.

And I think one of my favorite places would be, um, how do I explain?

So it was, so it was a.

holiday home.

It was quite remote.

So it was in this city of Kerala, near the backwater.

And it was kind of, the whole experience was sort of like

super immersive in nature.

Sort of, it was like really immersive in nature.

So it's like you're, you're staying in a place.

But you're surrounded by water and you wake up with birdsong and it's

just like a different pace of life.

You have like extremely high Wi Fi connectivity, which means you are still

in touch with your, with your emails and your colleagues and work and everything.

Um, but I think being able to create a distance between work and kind of life.

And any place that supports that, I think would be my favorite place.

And I think places which are, which are kind of immersed in nature really helps

to do that in a natural way, like without you having to try too hard to do it.

Music is another place, like my living room would be my other favorite

place, you know, which is really close to me, with my piano there.

I think these two, two places,

yeah, the living room is easier, easier, quicker

to access than, than Kerala.

Um, yeah, yeah.

I, um, I visited Kerala, um, a number of years ago, back in 2005, I did, uh, a

backpacking trip around India for a few months and, uh, I absolutely loved it.

Yeah.

Kerala in particular was a fantastic place.

Hopefully get back there one day.

You never know, but it'd be good to, good to revisit.

Actually, thank you so much for being a guest on the show

and sharing your expertise.

Could you remind everyone, um, where's the best place to connect with you

online if they want to connect with you?

they can either reach out to me on LinkedIn or they can email me.

Um, my email address is, uh, p.

rampuria at ecoresponsiveenvironments.

com, but they can also email us through our website.

So if you go to our website, ecoresponsive environments, that's a design practice,

there would be a contact form in there.

So yeah, or just LinkedIn, a quick message on LinkedIn.

We, we always encourage kind of, um, sort of Yeah, if you have any further

thoughts, reflections, feedback, opportunities for collective learning,

working, yeah, just reach out and we'd be very keen to hear, hear more about you.

That's brilliant.

Thanks again.

Thanks, John.

It was so lovely.

And yeah, thank you.

Thank you again for having us.

Next time on joined by sales experts, Helen Teebay, to talk about what

to do when you're not making enough sales.

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