How to become an architect: Education, challenges and breaking in

This week, Tom Feary and Lea Grange, co-founders of Studio 163 Architects, join us to explore the realities of a career in architecture. From their unique educational journeys across Europe to launching their own practice in the wake of the pandemic, Tom and Lea share honest insights into the profession, delving into the challenges faced and the common misconceptions

Participants

• Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ
• Tom Feary - architect
• Lea Grange - architect

Transcript

Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You, the podcast brought to you by graduate careers experts, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ. I'm your host, Emily Slade and in this episode I chat to and in this episode I chat to Tom and Lea about being architects. 

Tom Feary: I'm Tom. I'm an architect. I co-own the practise Studio 163 architects, which is based in Norwich and also in London as well. 

Lea Grange: Hello. I'm Lea and as Tom said, I'm also a director of Studio 163 architects, which we've run for maybe four years ago together. 

Emily Slade: So what does your educational journey look like? 

Tom Feary: So I did the sort of traditional traditional route. In some respects. I did my. So there's there's three parts to being an architect. Part 1 I did, which is undergrads in in Bath in the West. Country. That was like a sort of sandwich course where you do your second and third year and half of it in practise. And I was lucky enough to travel for those two years, so it was 2010 like things are pretty bad sort of post banking crisis, not many jobs around. So I ended up travelling sort of throughout Europe in different sort of small placements, which is really yeah really amazing experience. One in Italy, one in Spain, one in France and they all kind of you know they're just sort of life experiences as well as professional. So that was my Part 1 and then worked for a year in Cambridge in practise and then I went to London for my Masters and then stayed there for like 10 years in practise. So that was my sort of training.

Lea Grange: I'm French, so it was I would I would. I did my studies in France in Lyon and so I just stayed there for almost the whole duration of my studies. Then in in the first year of Masters, we had the opportunity to travel abroad for a year, so I did the Erasmus exchange, which doesn't existed because of Brexit. But it's when I went to Bath City. And so it's where I met Tom and then I came back to Lyon to finish the my my last year of Masters and then moved to England to get a job in London and then maybe few, maybe a year or two after getting my job in London. I did my Part 3 in Westminster University in London to finish my studies. So to be a fully registered. Architect so less travel than Tabatha. Yeah, broad, I guess. 

Emily Slade: So you have your own business. What made you want to start that? 

Lea Grange: That's a good question. 

Tom Feary: I mean, I think it it was a lot of it was brought out of the pandemic in many respects. So we were both working in practise. In London, we moved back to Norfolk just for just to live there. The plans was to go back to London and then I think as time went on, we just sort of started to reevaluate our sort of priorities and our kind. Of. Lifestyle and I think having our own practise, we beliefs enabled us to have more flexibility in our lifestyle. Obviously a lot of additional, well, different kind of stress involved, but we thought it would improve our lifestyle, which we think it has. And also be able to do our own projects and to express ourselves a bit more freely. I suppose it's always. It's always been an objective, I think, but it maybe just was accelerated by by the situation we were in at. 

Lea Grange: That time, and I guess we were in bigger practise, which was obviously a great time, but at that time I felt maybe in maybe just before the lockdown, maybe a year. For the lockdown, I think I started to do a project on the side as well, just to obviously get a bit more money and just get a bit more experience on smaller scale projects because on I used to work on schools and. Museum and offices in in in London. So it was nice to just do a bit of a residential small house scale and I think that led to more opportunities and maybe three more jobs came up and then I think I was a bit in between obviously my day, my daytime job and then these three jobs on top. So at some point I had to make a choice anyway. And then we just where we started to discuss that something needed to happen and needed to quit. Probably my job to. Be able. To do you know the best I could in in those new jobs, rather than doing a bit of both not that well. And then Tom decided then to join and that's how we set it up. Yeah, that was that was quite scary, I guess at the. Start but. Yeah, I think. It was worth it, although. 

Tom Feary: I think, yeah, I guess my advice would be if you are considering that to you know, to make that jump, if you can, I think we probably could have even done it, maybe even sooner on reflection, but. Yeah, I think I'd. Advocate being your sort of self-employed. 

Lea Grange: Yeah, yeah, I think it's quite scary at that time because obviously giving up your, your salary and your, your, your security. But I think the opportunity, the opportunities will not have came up if we had not quit our jobs in some ways because you don't have enough time to do all of it. So I think we wouldn't be where we are now if we had not just take that leap, I guess. 

Emily Slade: Yeah. And what does a typical day look like for you? And on that what? Is it that you do? Are you literally conjuring up the idea of a house and then putting it to tracing paper and then sending it to builders? So what took me through? 

Tom Feary: So there's lots of different sort of stages in the project that you can be at. There's like a rebirth sort of all into your bridge arch. It has like a stage of plan of work which is quite dry, but that's quite useful to identify where you're at in the in the process, there's like 0, which is literally just meeting the client for the first time briefing them. There's like planning stages and there's tendering the job. It's construction phase, hand over all of those things. You could be doing any one of those things on any given day and it varies quite a lot, I think as well you could be doing quotes one day for. A. Client then you could be on site the next day and it's a lot of juggling of different types of, you know, people you're speaking to so engineers, clients, planners. Building control all of these different people have different ways of communicating. I think be able to juggle of that as a communicator is very yeah, very, very important to the job. I think that's like one of the main. 

Lea Grange: Challenges, I suppose. I guess it's really different because if you're in a bigger practise, this is not mostly going to happen because you're obviously going to be, let's say, I was in the practice of let's say 100 people and so you are put on a project and you're going to the specific task and probably figure at it, you're going to repeat that task that they're going to put you to another project doing that task again. When I guess if you become your own like director of your own practice, you have that Tom said like you have to take care of everything. So it's a lot of. Yeah, you really have to juggle a lot. So yeah, I think at that point, the days honestly look. The same but. But it's a lot more maybe behind the computer than you think. Like you know, I guess when we were studying, you had this image of all the things. You're. Going to do and actually a lot of time, even even creating. Even. You do some drawings, but you're a lot testing as well. On your computer rather than just. You know this romantic idea that you going to be drawing every day or on site every day, and it's a bit of a bit of that. But yeah, it's a lot being behind your desk as well. 

Emily Slade: What skill sets would you say you need to enter this profession? 

Tom Feary: I think first of all you do need. To have that that real. Design creative skill as in you want to be able to solve problems through design, make things look beautiful. Ideally that's that's the end goal we talk to want to achieve that, but I think a lot of the job which you don't doesn't get talked about is. Yeah, like the communication aspects. So you're just constantly trying to juggle different personalities, different kind of agendas, and you've also got you gotta work hard. There's like, it's a it's a, it's a, you know, every every job is hard. In the same. Way, but there is a very clear culture in in architecture, especially in. Education of pretty. You know, long hours and hard work, so I think. If you want to achieve something great, you do need to kind of work for it. And that's something. That I would say someone embarked on that kind of career?

Lea Grange: Of career? Yes, through the the wallet. So the whole like, speaking to people is very important because especially when you do small residential projects cause you're going to be one-on-one with the client, which might be a couple, they might not easily agree together. So you really have to like. Have this kind of personal skin where you can really like trying to understand what they want and try to make both of their vision come true. In one, I guess, and something I would say as well is. I remember when I was studying they were really saying. That you needed to be very good at like math and like and actually, you know, there was really like I was really bad at math and they basically told me I would never be an architect because of it. And actually I realised. That. That wasn't necessarily true because we don't do that much math on a daily basis and you know, like obviously you probably need to be to have some understanding because you want to review. Like structure, none of that, but it's not. It's on the city job. So it's more. Yeah, I. Think. More yeah, the creative side. 

Tom Feary: I guess also like maybe scare off different topic, but I think it be good As for people that looking to get into the career, I think getting a. Much variety of experience like a big practice around very differently from what we do and I think having like a big big project experience versus like this like a you know a house for a couple, they're very, very different animals in different ways of working. So I think getting a big Broads, I think we've both now worked in big and small firms and I think. Yeah. That that's. I think that's pretty beneficial. 

Lea Grange: Well, so it was really nice. Sorry. When when we when I was in my bigger practice, everyone had such a different background and such different, you know skill set and and actually I think yeah the broad like the broader your skill set is the better I guess because it doesn't have to be. Just you know, you know, some people were like, you know, really good. I don't used to be really good in fashion. Now all of that like obviously all runs kind of creative side. But I don't think you need it to be just if there isn't just one path I guess. I mean there is mainly one path to get there in time of studies. But I don't think there is. 

Tom Feary: Yeah, there's also paths from architecture as well, like lots of our friends have now become maybe game designers or film set designers. Development, like lots of more. Yeah, lots of different ways. You can feed off of that, I think. 

Emily Slade: Yeah.  but do you have to get certain qualifications before you can officially become an architect? 

Tom Feary: Correct. Yeah, you do. 

Lea Grange: Yes. 

Tom Feary: Although it's a tricky thing, cause you you have to. Yeah, you have to do go through that process to become an architect, which is a protected title, but at the same time. In. This country there isn't actually any anyone can do to set of drawings like anyone. Like you don't need any qualifications to do a set of drawings to to build from, which is obviously difficult because it then. It then promotes a bit of a culture of potentially undercutting, or people that don't necessarily provide the same service but are we're. Meeting with, so I suppose. Yeah. Like it's it's difficult that that's that's something we don't like in for example I think in Belgium and and to lesser extent in France you have I think anything beyond let's say 50 square metres has to be like signed by an architect like all the drugs have to be certified by an architect. We don't have that here so it that's something we hope. One day may change, but this is something to be aware of. I think. Like for someone that's. At the at the beginning of that journey to to realise how things work in this country. I think things may change because of, you know, Grenfell Tower and the the the things that followed that. But we're not. We're not there yet. 

Lea Grange: I think it's probably the main issue like going into that profession. People don't realise that, but I think that's the main issue is how hard you're going to have to fight. To prove, prove your value and your expertise and also you know like trying for client to understand that it's not just about pretty drawing and all of that, it's about all the things you learn to create that you know the space that they want. None of that that potentially someone is still very good at drawing you know plan might not have. Because they haven't actually had this experience in that way. So it's it's different like it's quite difficult it's, you know for us on a daily basis with like fees and all of that to prove your value to the clients that why they're paying that service versus someone that would be 50% cheaper. Yeah. So that's that's probably the main issue of the job, I guess. 

Tom Feary: In terms of like fees and like getting reward for your time, I suppose that's one of the one of the struggles. 

Lea Grange: Yes. 

Emily Slade: Do you set your own rates as sort of your own business, or is there a standard for the UK that you have to charge a certain? Amount. 

Tom Feary: There used to be like 20 years ago they used to be like everyone would just charge a percentage of the construction cost of the project and that's now being kind of phased out slowly. That's pretty more complicated. There's more risk maybe. So now we price everything. Kind of like on the job players and we we price everything individually based on, yeah, the size of the project, the budget, the perceived risk or difficulty with the job. We do have hourly rates, but we tend to just price everything like. 

Lea Grange: Lump sum thing. It's a mix between we we always try to look at that percentage tail like to to have the overall idea of how much it should. Then it can be plus or minus depending of, yeah, the experience we have and how hard the project is going to be and how many hours I guess we're going to put on, but there is still that idea it's it's between between the architect I should be around that like 10% mark or something, but obviously that that's where. If you have people and they're getting at you, then it kind of changed because yeah, so it's quite it's a hard balance between obviously not going too low to not lose a valuable, so not lose a job and ensuring that you're not undercutting other architects as well. So the profession doesn't like because if everyone does that then. Yeah, and healthy. No, no rules anymore. 

Tom Feary: Yes, thank you. 

Emily Slade: Yeah, in your studies or in your own practice, does the idea of sustainability and the environment come into it? 

Tom Feary: At all. Yeah, very much so. I think as you also, you're trained maybe to not just to think about like technology, but also just think about like. Building principles. When you when you're taught in in university, generally speaking, I think good design by itself can do quite a lot without just like adding loads of mechanical systems and. Whatever PV's heat pumps, I think just like the principles of good design go a long way and I think people been thinking about this for a long time anyway as architects. So it's I think it's always always a consideration. 

Lea Grange: I think though there is also is a lot of really new exciting, you know things like him creating out of that that we all want to explore. But then obviously the client needs to be on board because that has a cost. So people again don't necessarily see the benefits long term like something that was more costly at the start is going to obviously be better for them in the future. In the long term, but that straight away they might not see that so. 

Emily Slade: Yeah. 

Lea Grange: Again, because it comes with the added cost then sometimes you can't do it within the budget. But as Tom said that you know, we are obviously going to think about, you know, with the position of the extension or the glazing and all of that, the installation, internal installation of that. 

Tom Feary: I think people are getting more and more like clients are getting more and more demanding of that. I think as well like you know. Air quality noise, all these things. Now we know that they have detrimental effects on our well-being. So we know that we like with the information. There. So people are getting more and more like requiring that I suppose. 

Emily Slade: Yeah, absolutely. You use the word romantic to describe the profession earlier, and I think that's so app because my understanding of an architect is, you know, Liam Neeson and love, actually, lots of tracing paper across the kitchen. But and you've briefly touched it as well. But were there any more myths about the industry and the job itself that you wanted to debunk? 

Lea Grange: When we studied, we did Start learning how to do tracing paper and all of that because 1 is a great way to learn. You know about scale and about drawings and you know line type. None of that obviously. Now with all the softwares, people don't sleep. Do that on a daily basis and and some people still do it. Obviously it takes probably longer and but it's quite rare. So basically it would be great to be with you know your stressing paper. It'll be pretty more relaxing than what we do. And then I guess the money side is that I think every time we speak to someone about. An architect, everyone assumed that therefore you are really living in an amazing house and that you're probably quite wealthy and. I don't think that's the case. I think if you want to go in a profession, you need to be very passionate about it. More than yeah, don't go in for the money. Go because you love the design. I love the idea of, you know, changing some someone's daily life or I mean, to a certain extent. Obviously it's still houses but or. You know still, I mean there is an impact when it just cools and none of that is incredible, but. Yeah, not the money. I don't. Unless you probably. Unless you have very, very successful and probably maybe then 50-60 years older. You know, maybe then you will reach a certain amount of salary. 

Tom Feary: Yeah, it's feel like a partner, let's say Foster and partners. Maybe you're. You're making good money, but that's that's literally one out of. Yes. Thousands of people and yeah, it's it's not what you maybe think it could be, but you there are. There's lots of positives and you can travel the world generally speaking with that degree you can work anywhere in the world more. 

Tom Feary: Yes, and yeah you can. There is if you wanna work hard, you can create. You can make a difference to people's lives differently, but you've gotta really. Really really want to do it. 

Emily Slade: Is it your choice whether you work on residential or community buildings like libraries, schools is it are there different pathways to go down as an architect for those types of buildings, or are you just sort of I'm an architect, I could literally do any any type of building I wanted. I can do the Shard. By 1. 

Lea Grange: I think it really depends because as a small practice like us, because we're only two, you probably wouldn't have that opportunity because I think you need a certain level of like insurance and I guess experience still, I mean you can't I think there is no pathway like it's not like when your doctor where you have to study you know this pathway to be like knee surgeon or I don't know but. You know, like for example, I came to my previous practice and I did, you know hotels, offices, museum school, all of that with no previous experience, obviously as part of a bigger practice which had the experience. So you learn on the job. Then. But then obviously moving away from that from that big environment, which people I think people will trust bigger practice because they have a obviously a a bigger portfolio and a bigger name and they've been more established so and they insurance cost like they they have all of that in place when you start to step away from that and going into just a smaller practice. 

Lea Grange: That doesn't really happen. That or not. At least that quickly. Like, you know, maybe. Maybe. I mean, we would love to. We love lazy, but I think we would love to then start doing other things. But you will have to start would have to be a tiny tiny project 1st and then maybe build up. 

Tom Feary: From that I mean I was in residential pretty much my whole career, but that was just kind of by chance and by design. UM. I think most practces have like a an angle, they have a niche or some kind of sector they they do specialise in. So it's kind of depend on where you choose to work really I think and we are. We're now trying to hopefully do more like housing on a larger scale like you know Community Housing or housing association work. So that's something we're quite keen to pursue. 

Lea Grange: I'd love to the restaurant. 

Tom Feary: Yeah, hospitality. 

Lea Grange: Plus something we actually started to work on on a cafe, so hopefully that will lead to other. But I mean we have the experience for it this. Whether. You can actually attract that client because you only your smaller practice, so they don't necessarily know you as well yet. 

Emily Slade: OK. But you could make a name for yourself and somebody could approach you and say we'd like you to build the Shard.2?  

Lea Grange: Yeah, I mean, we maybe will be too small for women. Few more people, like. Yeah, in theory you could. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously. Yeah. With the right infrastructure. But I mean, yeah, you could like, for example, we could do hotel letter, hotel design or Intel design A lot. You could do that as well. 

Tom Feary: I mean, there are people in the world that have done competitions as as as friends like students and and press have been born out of these competitions. You know, it's very, very small chance of winning, but you if you do win them, you you. Really can make you know. Yeah, grow pretty quickly. 

Lea Grange: And that could be any any project like you could be, yeah, a student could be, I don't know, doing a hotel in, I don't know. Valley as a competition and I win because their project and design was really interesting. And then yeah, it happened from there. 

Tom Feary: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's very. It's very common for people to work, let's say, in a big practice for. Let's say 5 to 10 years and then. Break away and set up their own thing. It's that's throughout the world. That happens all the time, so I think. Yeah, I guess big practice maybe gives you that flexibility to find something your sector that you like or that you've got a skill for it. Then if you want to, you can. Move away from it. 

Lea Grange: And I guess it gives you opportunity as well to like learn different things at different stages because. Most practice is still, you know having that discussion with you on what you would like to do and you know maybe you've been a long time on on that type. I used to be a lot at some point on on doing just visual visualisation which I loved, but obviously that was not really part of the actual job it was. Just. To win competition out of that. And then when I asked to be more on a project. And they got me a project. I ran and that was a big learning curve, but it was great in that sense. So yeah. 

Emily Slade: Amazing. What advice would you give for anyone looking to become an architect? 

Tom Feary: I guess do your research I guess like at a young age just like just check, you know, if you if you do want to make money, I think maybe just like check the the fees, this is all published like Reaper has the fee schedule and I'd like you know estimated earnings for different experience. Levels do your research and then I think I think a lot of people in this country can design well, but they don't necessarily know how to build or how buildings are built. So I'd say if you're young and you. Want. To get experience to get on like a building site. And. Do like whatever internship or work experience and. Like a builder and just learn about basic building. I think that would set you off on a good A. 

Lea Grange: Good start. It's really hard though, because I feel like. 

Tom Feary: Stop. 

Lea Grange: When you are not at uni and then you are working, you can. Of lose, they were like naivety and freshness that in a way was great, so I'm not sure I agree. Because I feel. Like you probably need that nativity and freshness and all decided to 1. Go through the studies without any issue and then because it's almost like it's almost like child becoming adult like. Just enjoy your childhood and then you you have all your life to become. You know, because I think, you know, in reality, like once you actually start the job. You have so many are constrained, so many. Real life issues that makes the project not as maybe feasible or fun, or the all the ideas you have. So maybe it's better to cultivate all your like creative side as school, learn as much as possible of like. Yeah, like president architect all the more. Theoretical things go to lecture. Go to like, yeah, drawings to, you know. And if you I mean in my office before that everyone had such amazing skills at like. 

Tom Feary: Lectures. 

Lea Grange: So drawing sculpture like, yeah, cultivate your creative side and then obviously knowing that one day it might be. A bit crushed. Not in a bad way, but you know. What I mean like? Yeah, I think, yeah, the right is a bit different. So you need to know that. But I think enjoy those years of studies because I think if you already start to think about. 

Emily Slade: The reality? 

Lea Grange: The boring things it's kind of and you need to have an idea of it because it is quite hard. Even the studies are quite hard. And as someone saying like there is this culture as well, I'm a bit less now, I think, but. Of quite harsh critics when you're in the through the school, like at least I think they're starting to stop that a bit because it was a bit so crashing in some ways. But I think you having putting your idea out there and then having them crush is quite difficult already. So what was this? What? I don't know what I would say anymore. 

Tom Feary: I guess. Just the point about like the build like construction knowledge, I think you would say yourself apart from maybe from the rest by having that like a lot of people. Can like spend 6 months designing a library in in, in, in school in in university but to actually know. All of these real life issues, not many people know that when they. 

Lea Grange: Come out of university. Yeah, that's true. It's quite long. It's seven years. It's seven years. Yeah. And I mean, by the time you do, obviously, with the past three, like the like the the PAR 3 is more about low end contract. And of that it's not anymore. It's more about how to set up your own practice and how that system works. So it's not really. About the design, but I'm not sure that people know how to to do a lot of things. To be honest. You just know how to design which is. Great. But not in a not in a practical way. So that's true in the sense that I guess for us like now we work if we want to employ a Part 1 or someone like that. It will be probably better for us as a practice to have someone that has a bit. I mean it's quite a lot to ask for that age, but that also has a better understanding of how the building system works. 

Tom Feary: Also, it impacts how you design as well, doesn't it? Like if you know. 

Lea Grange: Yeah, but that's also the sad thing. Isn't there? 

Tom Feary: Yeah, it's it's it's very balanced. 

Lea Grange: Because the in fact I feel a bit sad sometimes about. When you design with even now the you know we were talking about stages. So we do start with like all these first ideas and the concept and which is always the way you start with the project. But how we always think ahead about all that is are going to be feasible to design or how is that going to be. Planning wise or is that how come much it's going to cost none of that. So which you need to, but it's also a bit sad because. You probably. Don't push yourself harder and some ideas I guess. 

Emily Slade: Yeah. Amazing. That's all of my questions. Was there anything else that you guys wanted to add? 

Lea Grange: I still think if you want to do it and you're passionate about. Design and creativity and you know. There is something still amazing now. Obviously we've been a bit more gloomy all. Of. That, but there is something amazing to, you know, see your project that you had in your head on paper coming to life and then people live in it. And hopefully that makes a change to their life. And that's really that is really incredible. But you have to know that to get to that stage you a project, you know. Timeline is actually quite long, so it would at least be a year before at least be a year or more before you see it completed from the month you you first spoke to the client. So and with, you know lots of it, it's not that easy so. I think do it, but you need to be passionate, not necessarily wanted out of money. 

Tom Feary: But yeah, if you, you know, a good the right project with the right client and the right, you know you can really make something really special. 

Lea Grange: Yes. I mean also like when we are speaking mainly about when we have on practice. I think when you're bigger practice you don't really deal with the clients. So maybe your creative side is more you know ready for someone that comes. Out of. The Union, they're going to be put more on the creative side anyway on competition or on the ideas and there is someone else going to take off the, you know, client relationship and fees and all of that. So in that sense that is fun. Like I think in the bigger practices, maybe more. More fun. The only downside to that is you might not experience all of these stages. You might not experience everything, so at some point you might get a bit frustrated by it and want to do your own things. Some people don't, but that's completely fine. So I think when I was speaking from people having our own practice so it's. A bit of different view in that sense. That's why we are maybe. We have more, less time to be creative, I guess.

Emily Slade: Perfect. That's brilliant. Thank you so much. For your time today. 

Lea Grange: Thank you so much for having us.

Tom Feary: Thank you.

Emily Slade: Thanks again to Tom and Lea for their time. For more information on becoming an architect, head to prospects.ac.uk or check out the show notes below. For a full length video version of this episode, check out our YouTube channel @Futureyoupod. If you enjoyed the episode, do feel free to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Thank you, as always for listening and good luck on your journey to future you. 

Notes on transcript

This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.

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