architects writing tips and best practices

Architectural writing tips and best practices

Architecture and writing skills – the combination of success

As an architect, you need to write a lot. Even more so, if you want to rise above mediocrity and grow financially and professionally, you need to become a good writer. 

We’ve worked with dozens of established architects to build our platform, and they all have one thing in common: remarkable writing and communication skills.

Here’s a list of the top types of writing you will have to be good at as an architect. We also include tips and best practices to help you improve in each kind of writing.

Writing architectural proposals

This is an essential document and has specific requirements you need to follow. In addition, we’ve put together a guide on practice-based tips for architectural proposal writing – make sure to read it.

Writing architecture articles, blog posts and interviews

To grow as a professional, you need to put yourself out there. Having a blog or writing for magazines is great for branding yourself and establishing your authority. Proper branding leads to better clients and more significant projects.

People in general love reading and writing about architecture. Since most architectural content is illustrated, it takes a particular skill to explain an image verbally. Transposing geometry and textures into words is a unique skill and precisely the type of skill that opens doors and lands you high-end architecture clients.

To hone your architectural writing skills, you should first read other architects – and read architectural journalism. 

Consume good architecture content daily and immerse yourself deep into a sense of style others have to develop one of your own. These online architecture magazines can be a good start:

Do not skip books either – there are lists of the best architecture books online that will help you develop your taste and expand your verbal horizons.

Architectural sales and presentation writing

Again, this is a whole new skill set you will need to attain and master sooner or later. Writing to convince and sell is not technical and must be practised separately.

The central part of writing to sell your designs is to understand that you sell ideas, lifestyles, and feelings, not buildings. 

Writing about architectural styles, materials, and techniques is excellent and relevant, but only as long as it fits your description of benefits for the client. Again, their experience matters to them, not how you deliver those experiences.

Architectural visualizations, renders, and virtual reality tours are great ways to showcase your project, but the right words must accompany them. Humans have different backgrounds, and not every client will immediately understand the idea you’ve put into the project just by looking at it.

Doing live presentations and pitches is a skill related to your architectural writing skills, and you need to treat it seriously too.

Written communication with architectural clients

This is another type of writing you need to be great at to grow as an architect. 

You need to be aware that lousy client communication is costing you a lot of new clients. A happy, confident, and informed customer, on the other hand, is a source of referrals and reviews.

Clients want you to give them a feeling of confidence. Their confidence depends on what you express in short-form communication like emails and text messages. Learn to be tactful, concise, to-the-point, and informative.

To help architects ensure their client communication is efficient, we’ve added a client communication module to PlanMan. It’s a powerful platform where you can manage all your clients’ messages, documents, and notifications. Moreover, the client management module lets your clients log in and see the progress of their projects. 

These features in our software are strictly practice-based and developed by experienced architect advisors – you will have a much easier time updating your clients about project progress using them.

Architectural handwriting and lettering

Handwriting is not used that often nowadays, and it’s not a must anymore – but still, lettering skills are what separates top architects from everyone else. So it’s always good to be able to add stylish, clear, and confident notes on any document or a blueprint.

You can learn architectural lettering and different types of it online. In addition, there are practice worksheets and exercises that will make your handwriting readable and stylish, so check them out.

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