082: Architecture Without Buildings with Omid Kamvari, Kamvari Architects and Pheromone
Channel: Business of Architecture
Date: 2020-03-18

Who said Architecture had to be buildings?!

Consider that maybe 60-70% of the architectural work we do doesn't get built. Does that work still have value? Of course it does!. 

Now consider that some of the fastest growing companies in the world right now might actually be architectural in nature, i.e. they employ a non-material solution to architectural and urban problems. Uber utilises tech to offer an alternative to transport infrastructure, Airbnb facilitates the movement of people without the need of new hotels and buildings. 

These are all ideas that wouldn't have been out of place as 5th year architectural proposals in progressive universities. 

Personally I think one the biggest latent opportunities for the architectural industry and for us as entrepreneurially minded architects is moving outside of what is traditionally considered architecture. This isn't new thinking particularly, after all Hans Hollein was talking about this in the 1960s.

So it was with great pleasure to spend a morning with British Iranian Architect Omid Kamvari of Kamvari Architects and Pheromone to discuss exactly this and his work as an architect, researcher, educator, and entrepreneur.

Omid specialised in Emergent Technologies and Design and is considered an expert in advanced digital design in architecture, lecturing internationally, on advanced manufacturing and design, robotics and algorithmic design. He holds positions at the university of Brighton and Nottingham, as a Senior lecturer on Technology. Omid has an astute business mind. He was responsible for numerous international short term education courses (Incubator/Accelerators) transforming standardised educational models. He has represented publicly listed companies at board level transforming internal structure and organisation and managing stakeholder and company growth. 

In this conversation you will hear Omid discuss

- The potential for non-material solutions for architectural business
- The latent opportunities that exist for architects, students and businesses in disciplines outside of the architecture such as in tech and data
- How he co founded a smart and flexible data aggregation platform that collects business analytics for easy use

This week's resources

Discovery Call with Rion
https://www.businessofarchitecture.co.uk/discoverycall

Kamvari Architects
http://www.kamvariarchitects.com

Pheromone
https://www.pheromone.io