Seminar #22 Small Fishes in Big Ponds

Designing resilient cities should be an absolute priority for architects, developers and urbanists. From small rear extensions to large masterplans, environment-savvy projects can really make a difference. Yet many stakeholders (and politicians) still consider the discipline of sustainability as a useless burden to development.

Many small architecture firms have sleek websites with catchy visuals and uber-polished drawings. They participate eagerly to debates. They master social media. They accumulate “likes”.

But are they able to transform digital prowess into cash flow? What’s behind their spotless Instagram profiles?

After cutting their teeth in large firms, Federica and Nicolò created an international network of professionals and decided to set up their own practice.

Instead of flooding the web with nice pictures, they explored marketing techniques which are often ignored or frowned upon. Instead of swimming randomly in the immense pond of the building industry, they started building their own ponds in different countries.

What did they learn during this journey?
What are their dos and don’ts for “small fishes”?

Federica worked as an architect at leading firms including Haworth Tompkins, Allies & Morrison and Massimiliano Fuksas. A graduate of Columbia University, Nicolò practices at the domestic scale and teaches at Kingston University and the University of Leeds-Beckett.