Pick your challenge. You have to present information to either a) someone who is a blind, or b) someone who is deaf. These extreme conditions seem daunting at first. But every architect practices multiple communication skills to present complex concepts to different types of people every day. Similar to the way a teacher fashions a lesson to appeal to different student’s learning styles, an architect employs verbal communication for clients who respond to descriptions and discussion, written communication for those who need to dissect and digest information and visual communication for clients who relish images and drawing. Maybe the truly effective architect combines communication methods to thoroughly emphasize a point.

Verbal:

Written:

To develop a personalized home, the architect must get to know the client. After a series of design exercises, I discovered a client who likes disparate activities. Her life is “contrasting balance“. For every public activity there’s a private one. Every modern desire balances with a traditional one. Every X has an O. Her life reminds me of a game of tic-tac-toe which commonly concludes in a perfectly balanced tie. Her personalized home design balances her public openness (the O) with her private contemplation (the X). Live the balance!

Visual:

parti

roof

plan

Talk, Write, Draw – The Hat Trick

If written communication is more effective than verbal and visual communication is more effective than written; combining all three is the communication Hat Trick!

The architect has spoken, written and illustrated. Effective communication scores again! Review the other Architalks Entries to see, hear and read how other architects communicate.