This material consists of two parts: a survey of Moscow architects and an overview of foreign practice.
Transition to remote work: a survey of Moscow architects
Sergey Kuznetsov, chief architect of Moscow:
“Most of the Moscow architectural bureaus have gone to work remotely to prevent the spread of the # COVID19 virus,” said the chief architect of the city, Sergei Kuznetsov, on March 16. - This is an important and responsible step, albeit difficult for many leaders. The following have switched to a remote work format or a free visit format: Citizenstudio, MAD architects, Maryarch, Wowhaus, Nefa, Kleinewelt Architekten, Master's plan, buromoscow, ABTB, Meganom, TPO Pride, JSB Ostozhenka and others. Also, MARCHI, MARCH, MITU MASI and other universities of the capital are switching to the distance learning format."
We talked with several heads of Moscow workshops - everyone is busy with the transition to a remote method of work and everyone appreciates the measure as necessary. Many turned out to be somewhat ready, because they had faced online communication and remote servers in one way or another, and some had already worked. The general impression is that after the epidemic, it is possible that the work of architects will be arranged in a more flexible and modern way.
Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy, ATRIUM:
“It is not easy to transfer a bureau, which employs about a hundred people, to remote work. But we approached the topic seriously and already from the beginning of last week, right after March 8, we canceled all face-to-face meetings with customers. Not all of them then were ready for this, meanwhile we managed to insist.
At the same time, all last week we were preparing: preparing servers, purchasing additional equipment, auditing the capacity of all computers. Now employees work from home, connecting remotely to their work computers in the office. Thus, they have good computing power and all the programs installed there. That is, we did not dismantle the office, and BIM and 3D Max - everything works from there. The main difficulty in this case is a good communication channel. Many things worked well for us at 40 megabits, but for those who work with 3D Max, it slowed down a little. Therefore, from next week we will increase to 100 megabits, let's see if it will be better. Large monitors, who did not have a home, were taken away by the employees - in the office everyone had basically two monitors, one was taken home.
From Tuesday of this week [17.03, - approx. Ed.] most of the employees work from home, a few people remained in the office, and those who themselves wanted to stay. These are young people who live nearby, walk to work, and do not use public transport. There are so few of them in a space designed for a hundred people that they almost do not meet with each other - they send us photographs of an empty office.
We switched to Slack as a corporate messenger. Its specificity is that the channels inside can be divided into projects and hierarchical interaction is conveniently organized there, in different modes you can communicate within the team, with external project controllers, and so on. But the setting of tasks and control over execution are done in the same programs in which we did it before, nothing has changed radically here. So we were probably half prepared for the situation. Now we are testing a new form of work in practice.
We foresee certain difficulties with architectural supervision. But for those two or three objects where we now have an active phase of control, we have agreed with the technical supervision at the construction site - they photograph us as much information as possible and immediately send it. Of course, if there are any unsolvable situations, we will come. But you can watch the main routine like that. In an ordinary situation, it is impossible to force them to do this, but now we have agreed.
In principle, we evaluate the experience positively. Our working day is no less intense than it was in the office. No time wasted on the road, traffic jams and delays, less time wasted on the meetings themselves. It cannot be said that someone has relaxed, the mood is fighting and vigorous. It can even be said that the team has mobilized. Everyone understands that these are new circumstances and react to them responsibly. Of course, we are forced to adapt, but there is even a certain excitement in this.
But I think that the main thing now is that the construction works do not stop. Then the virus will seem like flowers, not only will you have to pay for empty offices, but also to provide employees with a salary. This can be a serious problem. Therefore, everyone must mobilize and, no matter what, continue to fulfill their obligations."
Yuliy Borisov, UNK project:
“We are preparing to transfer employees to remote work, starting from Monday we are starting an experiment to switch to a new format. We hope to eventually transfer 100% of the work to remote control. This is not a problem for us, we have worked like this with foreign colleagues: English, Japanese, American, and have done quite a lot of projects, including those that won competitions.
We already have cloud technologies, we work remotely with contractors and subcontractors. Several years ago, we spent a lot of effort and money on creating a powerful 1C-based financial accounting system. Design is difficult to calculate, on the one hand it is a service, on the other hand it is a product, one is taken into account in time, the other by the piece; and we have a combined system, we have learned to take into account both. We are currently setting up standard Microsoft services for micro-team communication. Everyone basically has a simple technique at home, if someone lacks something, we will organize the delivery of a workplace, or some kind of separate equipment to the house.
But technology is the smallest problem in remote work. The biggest problems are psychological and energetic. We believe in our employees, we believe that we have collected the best personnel, but nevertheless, self-organization to work at home is a big challenge for every person. If you are used to working in the office and resting at home, then it may take an effort to rebuild. But, like other skills, this one can be acquired, learned to work from home.
The second challenge is related to the collective nature of our creativity. The project is being done by a large team, and it is necessary to transfer the synergy of the creative flow from the physical office to the virtual one. We partly tested this at work with foreign colleagues, but now we need to extend it to everything and everyone.
The third is psychology. People are social and many see work as a social club. It is important not to lose these connections, so that someone does not find themselves alone or alienated from the team - this is a serious task for those who will switch to remote work. We're studying. The basic rule of our world is to constantly learn.
My personal opinion is that what is happening now is hysteria. But there are also positive sides - in the fact that you can release more creative energy to create the actual product. And spend the free time on communicating with your family, with children, or on some new projects. Circumstances are a good incentive to change. In addition, the construction market is very conservative, and if there are any shifts in the direction of innovation, then this will be a plus. Due to the forced change in the format of work, something superfluous will go away, opportunities will be added that will free up energy for creativity. I think the epidemic will pass, but the industry will change."
Anna Ischenko, Wowhaus:
“We have partially transferred the office to remote work. For projects, key employees remain in the bureau in the most active phase. We have had a system of remote access to work files for a long time, and all employees have web and mobile applications with corporate mail installed. Everyone is accustomed to this and uses it, so the transition to home regime was not painful. Now, taking this opportunity, we are improving our video conferencing system - we have been planning to do it for a long time, but we haven’t gotten around to it”.
Vladimir Plotkin, TPO "Reserve":
“Yes, we also switched to remote work by 80% - it will not be easy, but perhaps this is a good experiment. If it turns out to be effective enough, it will be possible to continue partially in this mode and after the virus. That would be a nice economy."
Andrey Gnezdilov, JSB Ostozhenka:
“What can I say, a new time is coming. Tomorrow we will open an anniversary exhibition at the Museum of Moscow dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Ostozhenka, both the project and the bureau - this “vernissage” will be remote, using Internet resources.
Now almost all of our employees have switched to remote work, we are trying to reorganize the work, prepare for the time when moving around may not be so easy. Of course, everyone understands that now we need to limit communication, travel less in the metro and generally in public transport, and avoid potentially dangerous places. The employees are so much safer.
The measure is necessary, but it is not so easy to implement it, in any case it requires organizational efforts - both from the project manager and from each participant. Our work is collective, when the project is underway, reviews are necessary: with some time step, we need to look at the results of the work all together. It is easy to do this in the bureau, we lay out the materials on the negotiating table, discuss. Of course, online discussion is more difficult. But probably. This is not a problem, but just a new form of communication. You will have to get used to it, to live in this format. But in any case, organizational and emotional efforts are required. At least so that remote work does not turn into a vacation."
Sergey Skuratov, Sergey Skuratov architects:
“I am in quarantine, I flew in from Lyon on March 7. I went downhill skiing with my family for a week in Valdiser. Nobody got sick from our plane with coronavirus. I have seen data for all flights. I'm in quarantine until Monday. I consult by phone, WhatsApp or Skype.
Everything is good so far. The workshop works almost entirely. We have two competitions and a new concept ahead. The order on remote work has not yet been issued, so this is voluntary - someone has switched, but this is not yet massive. More than half of the workshop's work is working documentation, on which teams of 3 to 15 people work. Someone has to collect, print and transmit all this. The mood is fighting. The workshop is clean, everything is ventilated, hands are washed several times a day. Work goes on as usual.
I will assume that the next month will have to be spent remotely. But this is not the worst thing - the main thing for us is orders. It is important that construction projects do not stop and developers do not close their activities indefinitely. If this happens, it will be difficult, especially for ordinary employees. There will be nothing to pay salaries.
Sergey Nikeshkin, Krupny Plan design bureau:
“Collaboration on large objects in BIM involves the constant exchange of large amounts of data, which is not easy to achieve when working from home. But we are solving the problem, preparing now the technical side for remote work, deploying cloud storage and analyzing the possibilities of our employees' home workplaces."
Mikhail Beilin, Citizenstudio:
“We already work in the“virtual office”format, we have always worked like that. And we really like this format. We consider it productive, and this way of organizing the office is extremely flexible. Especially in the difficult economic situation in the country and the industry. He puts on the leaders - me and Daniel - additional responsibility - for remote functioning. This is such over-management. You do not see how people work in the process, therefore, you must constantly monitor the architect's product. Divide it into micro-tasks in order to always be able to quickly make adjustments to both the process and the result. We must learn to react quickly and remotely, always be online. Keep in mind and imagine all the work processes that take place in your employees for different projects. Eye contact, of course, makes interaction very easy. In our format, it rarely happens, at special meetings with architects. But when the system is in place and the employees are used to it, everything goes well. Therefore, in our case, nothing has changed.
The main advantage of this format is not savings (on rent, office life, etc.), but flexibility in choosing a job. Without extra spending, you can take only those orders that are very interesting to you."
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Review of foreign practice
(see the survey of Moscow architects)
The COVID-19 pandemic announced by the World Health Organization, combined with the economic crisis it caused and the fall in oil prices, has put the architectural community in a particularly difficult situation. The safety of employees and students, of course, remains a priority, but one cannot ignore the economic consequences of quarantine, if, for example, the work of a team from home is technically impossible even for the workshop itself (there is no "cloud" with all the materials, there are no remote access programs), not to mention already on the approval of projects in the authorities and, of course, on designer supervision at construction sites.
A separate topic is the dependence of architecture as a business on government decisions in a particular country. If it declares mandatory quarantine, thereby taking responsibility for its economic consequences, it is possible with a clear conscience to send employees home - as, for example, in France they switched to "telework", that is, remote work, and the office of Jean Nouvel, and editorial office of the journal L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui.
Naturally, it is difficult to switch to the new regime, and here everything depends on the foresight of the management of a particular company. The American magazine The Architect published a large survey of workshop leaders from all over the country about their actions and plans. It turned out that many had a plan of action in case of a disaster, which is understandable after September 11, 2001, and also taking into account the large-scale natural disasters characteristic of the United States. These plans include the ability to work remotely. Naturally, in bureaus with several branches, often simultaneously on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, cloud storage and telecommuting as an important skill emerged simply as a necessity in business. The respondents also criticize the authorities that did not deal with health problems and even destroyed what their predecessors created in this area, but also hopes that the current crisis will allow the workspace to evolve in accordance with the needs of society.
The same topic is touched upon by the material of the American version of the AD magazine, where architects discuss the possible impact of the pandemic on architecture, urban planning, and interior design. This seems quite likely, given how much cholera and tuberculosis changed the structure of cities and housing standards in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
Canadian architects talk about the problems with remote work: you can become a victim of a ransomware hacker who seized access to a remote desktop, children who find themselves at home due to quarantine do not allow them to focus on the project, a separate issue is maintaining a "morale" in the team, which is helped by common teleconferences every morning and evening.
Returning to individual workshops: Renzo Piano's workshop, German bureaus Behnisch Architekten and GRAFT, Dutch KAAN Architecten and many others have officially announced the transition to "telework". At the same time, of course, the emphasis is placed on the continuation of work: not a single project is suspended. The Australian Institute of Architects has published detailed instructions for its members - how to act depending on the stage of development of the project at the time of the announcement of the pandemic, primarily from a legal and financial point of view (general instructions have also been drawn up).
The American Institute of Architects has also produced a helpful list - with guidance on "virtual architectural practice", its "telecommuting" policy, its tax and economic implications, and, of course, medical sites. The American Society of Health Engineers has compiled a compilation of resources and specific guidelines for hospital and clinic management to respond to a pandemic, which will obviously be useful to planners of new facilities.
In its own way, it is easier for architectural universities: their transition to distance learning is sanctioned by the state, that is, the choice was not made by them, and possible losses can then be claimed from the authorities. Another thing is that the educational process can suffer greatly: everything now depends on the responsibility of the students. However, both the Harvard School of Design and the Zurich Federal School of Technology (ETH) have switched to virtual mode.
The London School of the Architectural Association is noticeably different: so far they only "monitor the situation" and do not even prohibit travel. This is due to the position of the British government, which, for the sake of saving money, did not give clear instructions on quarantine for a long time, and therefore the closing cultural and educational institutions did it without hope of compensation, "at their own expense." For this reason, for example, Zaha Hadid Architects have just created a “headquarters” to control the situation, and since March 16 they measure the temperature of employees when they appear at work.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is unhappy with the government's measures to support small and medium-sized businesses, to which most of the workshops belong. They are also considered insufficient by the heads of the largest firms, fearing a general bankruptcy. Therefore, by the way, they want to continue their work - their own, officials in town planning departments, builders - at any cost.
However, a poll by The Architects ’Journal showed that the vast majority of British bureaus have nevertheless switched - partly or entirely - to“teleworking”. Only 18% are working as they were before the pandemic. Naturally, if you divide London and the rest of the country, then this number will change: in the capital there are only 11% of such "persistent", and outside it - 28%.
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Now many workshops are switching to a remote work format. We encourage you to share your stories and life hacks on switching to remote control in the comments.
