As part of the SPbGASU Architectural Seasons, students met with practicing architects and heads of architectural bureaus. Future specialists heard first-hand about how to pave the way to a successful business.

The topic of the round table was “How to establish your own bureau” was chosen for a reason: future specialists are interested in how to take their first steps in the profession, implement their creative ambitions and at the same time make good money. Professional practitioners with different work experience tried to answer these questions. Among them were graduates of our university, who opened their own "Chely" bureau a year and a half ago: Ivan Protopopov and Viktor Korolev.

“The establishment of the bureau was a follow-up of our activities in the architectural workshop of PhD of Architecture Konstantin Kolodin. After graduating from university, we found jobs in our specialty, but at the same time continued to work together. We soon realized that we wanted to develop our own creative method and completely immerse ourselves in this activity. That’s how the idea came to open our own bureau,” said Viktor Korolev and Ivan Protopopov.

It turned out that the young architects followed the path of many experienced colleagues. Thus, the partners of the KHVOYA bureau Ilya Spiridonov and the DAbureau bureau Fyodor Goreglyad and their like-minded friends also once decided, in their words, to do what they really like, to develop in a direction that interests them, and not to carry out projects just because that this is required by the position in the employer's organization. The head of the TOBE bureau, Andrey Korablev, has a similar story.

“One organization assigned me to lead an architectural project. The project was successfully completed and I continued working for the company. However, over time, my views began to diverge from the organization’s policies, so I decided to assemble my own team,” said Andrey Korablev.

The owner and director of the MLA+ bureau, Yana Golubeva, noted that at the time of opening the bureau, she had experience working in state design institutes, design organizations, and a large construction company. But she realized that she wanted to manage projects in order to work in areas that were interesting to her and, according to her own vision, to form a team that would act as a single organism. To realize her goal, to better know the market, meet potential customers and partners, Yana began to actively attend various professional forums. So she received an offer from the Dutch bureau to open their representative office in Russia, and as a result, she has successfully managed it for 12 years.

“We now have two offices – in Moscow and St Petersburg. The staff consists of 60 people, and due to the increase in orders we plan to attract new partners. We try to respond and meet the market demands. I believe that architecture is a service profession. Architecture can be perceived as art, or as business. I am more of the second opinion, so I associate success in this area with the quality of the service: the higher it is, the higher the success. At the same time, I want to do good. I feel like I’m succeeding, which brings both pleasure and income,” said Yana Golubeva.

• Architects admitted that they often have to work for at least two to three years to make a name for themselves, gain the trust of clients and start receiving a stable income. Andrey Korablev added that the financial state of the bureau may be negatively affected by late payment from customers.

The architects gave advice to those who want to create their own office in the future. Yana Golubeva advised attending various conferences, workshops, and other specialized and related events in order to make as many acquaintances as possible with representatives of various fields, since it is often through acquaintance that one is able to receive large orders. In turn, it is large projects that provide real growth in the development of the bureau. In addition, she advises against participating in competitions that involve unpaid projects. At first glance, this may seem like a way to make a reputation for yourself, but it is bad practice. “There is a lot of money in the architectural market, and you shouldn’t work in it for free; on the contrary, we need to immediately attract solvent customers,” says Yana Golubeva.

Ilya Spiridonov confirmed the correctness of this opinion, based on his own practice. According to him, as soon as the bureau abandoned such an idea, its income began to grow.

Ivan Protopopov advised to work in several organizations to find the optimal direction for oneself. Viktor Korolev suggested first of all asking the question: “For what purposes are you planning to create a bureau? To quit your job? To implement your personal ambitions? For operational efficiency? The answer to the last question became decisive for the creators of the Chely bureau.

Andrey Korablev agreed that to establish a bureau you need to “mature” professionally.

Fyodor Goreglyad believes that to become a leader, you must first learn to delegate authority. “It's difficult, but important. To do this, you need to go through the stage of acceptance, because at first it seems that others are doing things wrong. Clearly formulated and distributed job responsibilities and a well-established corporate culture will facilitate this process,” he is convinced.