Nikita Asadov: “Now Everywhere: At Home, In The Office, And On The Road, I Work Quite Efficiently”

Table of contents:

Nikita Asadov: “Now Everywhere: At Home, In The Office, And On The Road, I Work Quite Efficiently”
Nikita Asadov: “Now Everywhere: At Home, In The Office, And On The Road, I Work Quite Efficiently”

Video: Nikita Asadov: “Now Everywhere: At Home, In The Office, And On The Road, I Work Quite Efficiently”

Video: Nikita Asadov: “Now Everywhere: At Home, In The Office, And On The Road, I Work Quite Efficiently”
Video: Working From Home VS. Working in the Office. Which is better and why? | Work Days in Our Lives 2024, March
Anonim

How did the isolation period affect the work of the architectural firm, how difficult was it to give up the office and work smoothly from home, and how are post-pandemic urban forums online? On the eve of the Development 2.0 day at the VII Forum of Living Cities "Time of Creators" we talked with the architect of the "Asadov Architectural Bureau" Nikita Asadov.

zooming
zooming

How has the quarantine affected the work of your bureau?

Quarantine affected us, on the one hand, as well as on everyone else - negatively, and on the other hand, in some ways even good. First of all, we managed to debug the processes with work from home. We have practiced this type of employment before, but now we have managed to do it at a qualitatively new level.

Was it difficult to switch to a remote schedule? What does your office look like now?

It was an easy and very natural process for us. A year ago, we switched to part-time employment. Working from home has become the norm for us. It was only necessary to test this format in conditions when the entire office is working from home, respectively, to increase the network bandwidth, to set up the server. This was not a critical moment for us, although it took about two weeks to adapt. It is interesting that in the office everything remained the same, only the jobs were not occupied. The maximum is now up to 7 people, and meetings are held as needed.

How has communication with clients and colleagues changed?

I would say that communication with customers has hardly changed. The only thing is that it has become a little easier, since the webinars have a clear schedule, the value of time and the structure of communication have appeared. The time for negotiations has been reduced. We also switched to the webinar format with colleagues, since synchronization is needed from time to time. On the other hand, we have been discussing all current projects in messengers for a long time. Practice shows that this is quite effective: many questions can be solved visually, in text or in a webinar mode.

Top tips for those who have not yet been able to adapt to a remote work schedule?

The first tip is to understand the benefits of teleworking. For example, initially we switched to remote work with our students. The first week was very difficult. We got used to it. Then we began to understand the pros. Less time spent on the road. The same Zoom-lectures have appeared, to which you can invite various architects. The second tip: feel, use all the tools, choose the right ones. Finally, the third: find how to combine remote and regular office work.

And how is your quarantine going?

The main plus for me is that I managed to set up work from home as efficiently and comfortably as if I were in the office. Now everywhere: at home, in the office, and on the road, I work quite efficiently. Thanks to the quarantine, this transition was faster. For a long time, my hands simply did not reach this task.

What was the most joyful or interesting thing that happened during the time of self-isolation in your company?

We started to have joint dinners online. Being in isolation, at some point we realized that we lacked communication and came up with a format of meetings “at lunch” for half an hour. What used to be in the office made it possible to communicate with colleagues not only about the project and current tasks, but informally, one might say, live, but via the Internet. It looks pretty funny, but it keeps coworkers awake in the middle of the day. And this new tradition has arisen in our country almost by itself.

Are you planning to change something in your work after the end of quarantine?

Now we are just thinking about this experience, trying to understand all its pros and cons, seriously thinking about transferring some of our employees to permanent remote work and starting to think whether we really need a large office, or we can reduce it. Most of the employees can work remotely from home and do not want to return to the office, having appreciated all the benefits.

What post-pandemic events are you planning to participate in and why?

Tomorrow we will have an active Development 2.0 day at the VII Forum of Living Cities "Time of Creators". We have brought together experts from spheres close to us, such as architecture, master planning, development and territorial development. We will be discussing practically tomorrow of development. What is happening at the moment, what interesting and non-standard practices are, and what is new in this area.

The forum is absolutely not like the others. It is completely open to the public. All lectures will be recorded and posted on the community youtube channel. There is an opportunity to just listen to different speakers, and actively participate, pump yourself in new directions. It is a cross between a forum, an educational program and a workshop. You can personally ask a question and hear unexpected opinions of professionals. Plus, it has a completely non-standard duration for a forum: instead of a maximum of a week - 49 days.

What will be the tangible result of the forum for you?

For me, the most important thing is a fruitful exchange and, to some extent, synchronization of meanings and opinions. That is, this is an increase in the knowledge of community experts, on the one hand, and the expansion of collective knowledge through forum participants and unexpected discoveries in the process of communication, on the other. The rest of the results are already a by-product: joint projects, initiatives that are born in interaction, if it is dense and interesting.

I plan to participate in other days of the forum, because I am always interested in watching the development of the Living Cities community. Recently, I have chosen the tactics of random participation in events and, as a rule, the effect of an integral understanding of oneself and the effect of surprise from the synchronization of different directions occurs.

Recommended: