Emmanuel Joshua D.

De Luna
BSA5A | ARBM

HOW DO YOU ESTABLISH OR SUSTAIN YOUR PRACTICE/ FIRM?

Being in the architecture profession requires generous effort and time to be

able maintain the passion in working in the practice. Even as a student, I find the
course or profession very prone to distress, pressure and sometimes,
discouragement, and I believe, even if we finish the course and make it to the
field, we will still experience some of those feelings, or worse. Thus, as a student,
we are trained earlier to handle such pressure to be able to establish and sustain
the practice through various ways.

First, we must extend our connections through exercising having a good

leadership and communication. We are able to close deals, settle agreements
and issues, and earn trust if we are confidently and humbly speaking our words
with our clients or co-workers. Second, we must be a wise decision-maker. In the
field or in any practice, miscommunication, misunderstanding, and other issues
are common, but what important is how we settle those issues on what approach
we should come up with or what decision to choose. We must practice how to
discern the best solution in every problem we might encounter in the practice.
Finally, we must establish good relationship with our clients or co-workers. We must
not be blinded by any title awarded or given to us. We must remain humble and
approachable as we can be, as we never lose interest in learning.

At the end of the day, architecture revolves, not just to the architect,
himself. It has allied professionals, workers, and clients whom he/she shall work
with. Establishing a good relationship with them while being wise in every word we
speak is the key to a successful project or firm. As an individual and as a student,
we should never stop learning. We can learn from the experience, and we can
learn from the people we encounter during our practice in architecture. And
that’s where we can be able to let ourselves grow together with the people we
work with.