S1 Ep6: TU Delft & Architectural entrepreneurship 101 with SIAN architects

Good For Construction

Introduction:

SIAN is a young, small-scale, almost a personal incubatory for our expressions. All of us at the studio are attuned to crafting atmospheres and impressions and the studio then gives us the opportunity to realise these ‘impressions’ into spaces. Deriving from the personalities and distinctive thought processes of our team, collaborators, technicians and clients, models and drawings, we try to put forth, probably in the only way known to us, our eclectic ways of understanding, thinking and doing architecture.

SIAN’s work:

Instagram: @sianarchitects

Connect with Sian: [e-mail]

Time Stamps: Following are some highlights from the conversation

1:30 - (Eesha) When did you feel that it was the right time to open a firm?

1:48 - (Surbhi) It happened after under graduation, however there wasn’t any one moment.

2:36 - (Deepanshu) Architecture is such a subject field, you are always working through someone else’s lens

3:27 – (Deepanshu) You have to analyze the idea and see if its scalable

4:29 – (Deepanshu) We spent our masters honing our style

6:13 – (Surbhi) SIAN happened during our masters

8:18 – (Eesha) How experience working for someone else is enough experience?

11:30 – (Deepanshu & Surbhi) It is always better to work for two to three years in one place or in the same direction

12:40 – (Eesha) How did you decide to go for a master’s degree?

14:12 – (Deepanshu) It was to satisfy what I couldn’t gain from my graduation

14:29 – (Surbhi) For me it was an effort towards finding and exploring my own style and school of thought

19:18 – (Surbhi) I was making models of 1:5 details in my master’s degree, you could see beams and wooden details.

24:50 – (Deepanshu) Your drawings and your medium of representation is your biggest tool when you’re starting your own work and most often the power of these tools is underestimated

28:54 – (Surbhi) Even if you check all the boxes of requirement for a submission you can still fail

37: 20 – (Eesha) How do you manage finance for an architecture startup?

37:55 – (Deepanshu) Finance is a very important aspect when you are starting your own firm but also the most overlooked

45:33 – (Eesha) Lets talk about failure as an aspect when it comes to entrepreneurship

45:44 – (Deepanshu) There’s a 100% chance that you will fail everyday

47:21 – (Surbhi) Bad days aren’t always your mistake and the architect is responsible for everything that happens on site

58:18 – (Surbhi) You learn a lot from your consultants

58:56 – (Deepanshu) On site everything becomes very tangible and very technical very quickly