Adapt as an Architect

Adapt as an Architect.

The middle of an architect’s career can provide a turning point for a bright future or be a directionless hinterland. How is it for you? Are you where you want to be? Have you been forced off your preferred path by unforeseen circumstances or are you drifting?

Adapt as an Architect provides hope and direction. It is a crucial compass for design professionals, seeking to navigate the vast heart of the architect’s journey. It serves as a roadmap – a career GPS – with options for architects getting from where they are today to where they want to be. 

The focus of this upbeat, engaging book is on how you can remain rejuvenated and resilient without losing sight of the value of your acquired knowledge and expertise. 

By signposting how you can maintain your relevance, doing what you do today, but better and smarter, it also suggests how you can reinvent yourself by doing something different but not so different. It provides the much-needed guidance and support that is often missing once you’ve gained some experience in the profession and are left to your own devices. It means that you won’t be left to navigate those mid-career years on your own.

Deutsch draws insights from a wide range of international practices including:

• Gensler
• HDR Architecture
• Perkins&Will
• Shepley Bulfinch
• Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
• SmithGroup
• Studio Gang
• ZGF Architects

Content

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

PREFACE 

INTRODUCTION 

PROLOGUE: ADAPT PART I 

Chapter 1 RELEVANCE 

Chapter 2 REMAIN 

Chapter 3 RESILIENCE 

Chapter 4 FLOURISH 

Chapter 5 SHIFT PART II 

Chapter 6 PIVOT 

Chapter 7 REINVENT 

Chapter 8 REWIRE

Chapter 9 REINFORCE 

Chapter 10 REINTEGRATE 

EPILOGUE: THRIVE 

Appendix: REBOOT 

Bibliography 

Index 

Image Credits

About the author

Randy Deutsch FAIA, LEED AP is an educator, author, speaker, AI researcher and a licensed architect. Since 2011 Randy has authored five books, most recently Superusers: Design Technology Specialists and the Future of Practice (Routledge, 2019) and Think Like An Architect: How to develop critical, creative and collaborative problem-solving skills (RIBA Publishing, 2020). Until 2019 he served as Associate Director for Graduate Studies at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he currently teaches.