When no Architect wants the hard bits, you find the people who will...

Every industry has those moments where the drawings look tidy, but reality gets messy.

Somewhere between “by others and this bit by others,” the real work starts to disappear into the gaps between teams. That was the spark for Richard Keys when working in a large architectural company and a whole new way of thinking about architecture that treats risk, scope, and delivery as first-class problems, because the question remained, who's actually going to do this?

In this Podcast ( 1:23 min ) I sat down with Richard Keys from ByOthers Architecture

This “by others” problem: scope gaps create cost, time, and stress.

Richard spent years seeing this pattern in big practices. People would annotate drawings with “by others” as if it were harmless. Then he find himself asking a simple question: who is actually doing that work?

Because when nobody truly owns the difficult sections, you get the classic domino effect:

• Scope gaps (everything looks covered, but nothing is accountable)

• Cost creep (assumptions get corrected later, usually expensively)

• Time delays (decisions stall while responsibility gets passed around)

• Rework (the same issue comes back in a different form)

  
  

That question is what pushed Richard to build a different kind of architectural practice. Not just a studio that draws. A collective that helps people untangle what’s hard.

Building ByOthers: a collective approach to delivery

The story of the name ByOthers and a philosophy. Richard wanted the business to represent a “collective of people” rather than a single office brand. The idea of ByOthers (rather than “Richard Keys Architects”) keeps the focus on teams, enablement, and solving real delivery problems.

At the centre of it is a belief: if you can’t guarantee results, you don’t truly own the work.

So he designed the practice to move beyond isolated design tasks and into the full reality of building, development, and decision making.

How you actually find the “dependable people” and why reviews are only part of it?

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation I had with a Richard a client, a partner was how they found their way to our team. It started with a Google search for “point cloud surveyors,” then Google reviews, then a shortlist of preferred consultants.

But here’s the nuance: we both agreed that reviews are useful, yet not the whole story. For projects like heavy renovations, the real stumbling block is whether survey information is dependable. The rest of the chain breaks if the foundation is wrong.

So beyond reviews, word of mouth matters a lot. People underestimate it because social media feels measurable. Referrals are harder to quantify, but in practice they often outperform.

Networking is not luck. It is preparation plus availability

Richard explains: "I’ve met clients in the most random places. One story still sticks with me because it wasn’t a planned sales moment. We were on a train heading back from a presentation, and I noticed a miserable guy staring into his laptop. I asked how he was doing, and he said he’d had a bad day after a meeting with an architect.

We talked. Two hours passed quickly. Then it turned out he was the CEO of a billion-pound company. By the time we were back, we were already introduced to his team, with a meeting set up for two days later."

That looked like luck, but luck is where preparation meets opportunity. If you already have confidence in your track record and you treat conversations as real entry points, opportunities find you faster.

Clear your diary. Responsive teams win better projects

One of the biggest bottlenecks in small architectural practices is simple: speed to respond, if you take a day or a week to reply to tenders or quotes, someone else already has the relationship.

That can decide the outcome before your best work even gets considered.

Richards practical approach is to constantly keep his ability to respond. He tries to clear desk and diary so he can be flexible when new inquiries come in. And the underrated benefit is that it makes your team stronger.

• Ownership increases when you stop acting like every decision must pass through you

• Responsiveness improves when your practice is built to move quickly

• Quality rises when people feel trusted to do their best work

  
  

Energy follows meaning: why long hours do not have to burn you out?

Burnout is common in architecture. Not because work hours are always extreme, but because the meaning collapses. The same hours can feel energising or draining depending on what you believe you are moving toward.

A rule to follow is straightforward: energy follows meaning. If you’re doing intense work that progresses a goal, your brain can sustain it. If you’re stuck doing repetitive tasks with no movement, you will eventually hit the wall.

So instead of just asking “how many hours?”, ask:

• Why am I doing this?

• What outcome does it drive?

• Is it learning, building, or solving something real?

  
  

Architects of the future: less “drawing desk,” more end-to-end agency

Richard believes that the role of an architect is changing fast. Over the next 10 to 15 years, education, build costs, and regulation pressure are going to reshape what architects do and how they do it.

Architects do not have full control over construction in many scenarios, but that doesn’t mean control and agency can’t be reclaimed. In fact, it can be an advantage to work closer to execution, budgets, and delivery constraints.

That is why Richard often says the industry has to go bigger. If architects want to influence outcomes, they need to understand the work deeply enough to make decisions that actually hold under real constraints.

Design plus development: the “dynamic thinking” model

A big part of ByOthers architecture is that they try to blur the lines between:

• Design studio (the core design ability)

• Construction experience (hands-on knowledge so details make sense)

• Development appraisal (planning, risk, viability, and consequences)

  
  

That doesn’t mean architects should become developers in every case. It means architects should be confident enough to understand development pressures and speak the language of consequences.

Why fewer architects become developers?

Developments are risky, and risk is often misunderstood. In small-scale development, the developer usually has “everything in the game,” including personal guarantees. The consultants get fees, but the developer carries the personal downside.

So the question becomes less “should architects do it?” and more:

• Can you talk about risk without hiding behind process?

• Can you manage end-to-end decision making?

• Do you understand the full viability chain, not just design intent?

  
  

Budget control can help, but partnership is essential

Another area where architects often get stuck: budgets are treated like someone else’s problem. Yet when scope and budget diverge, clients want answers.

Richard encourage architects to manage and control budget responsibility where possible, but not alone. A quantity surveyor should be your partner. Then, when the project is drifting, the architect can pick up the phone proactively and explain the “why” and propose design-led options.

When budget warnings are delivered only by a separate party, clients often aim their frustration straight at the architect. Partnership changes the conversation from blame to problem solving.

Education reform: knowledge is not the same as skill

A tough but important point: education has to produce skill, not just knowledge. Knowing how to do something is not the same as being able to do it.

And student debt makes this more painful. Richard was fortunate to have studied before the current system became acute. But he do employs people who are dealing with that burden, and he would rethink how we match people to roles.

Richard "I’m not prescriptive about one “perfect” educational path. I’m focused on what someone can do and what they understand. For example, a furniture maker who understands 3D design, CAD, joints, quality, and construction logic can be just as valuable as a newly graduated architect. Similar foundations. Different strengths."

Sustainability that actually works: energy efficiency

Sustainability gets treated like a vague label. But it becomes actionable when you simplify it to outcomes.

Richard likes to explain it like this: "you don’t enjoy paying energy bills. So you would love a home with no energy bills. That’s the target. The practical path starts with fabric-first thinking: insulate the building well enough that you reduce energy demand before you talk about external fixes. Instead of going out in a t-shirt in February and then having a heater to keep yourself warm, think “good jacket and stay warm naturally.” In building terms, that means designing and upgrading for lower energy usage as the first move.

Solar and reusable energy can help, but affordability and financing mechanisms matter. And for retrofits, labour and complexity are often the real cost drivers.

The future of visualisations, not only VR, it is hybrid

Visualisation is evolving quickly. AI is improving, Unreal Engine and VR are becoming more common, and visualisers are expanding their skill sets across stills, video, and immersive environments.

But the “best” outcome is rarely purely virtual. I think the future of visualisation is hybrid:

• Virtual for efficient walkthroughs and early-stage exploration

• Physical mockups for material understanding and human-scale feedback

  
  

Architects are uniquely positioned to guide both because design is about more than spatial constraints. It is also about how materials feel, how they come together, and how people will live with them.

Scaling a small Architectural practice: outsource the non-core, empower the core

Can small architectural businesses scale without changing their business model? Richard believes yes. But scaling doesn’t come from you doing everything. It comes from embodying the practice culture and empowering teams.

Two rules guide the model:

• Keep design and creative input in-house

• Outsource the parts that drain time and do not use your top strengths

  
  

One example is surveying. Another is software or project management components. The goal is to remove frustration and free the team to focus on what they do best.

What to avoid or outsource (practically)

If you want a simple checklist based on this approach, here it is:

• Outsource surveying and any data capture where others are faster and more specialised

• Outsource recurring administrative complexity through software and specialist services

• Outsource project management tooling so your team spends time designing and deciding

• Integrate specialist expertise where outcomes depend on it (development appraisal, cost planning input, visualisation support)

  
  

The biggest bottleneck for architects

Richard says: "To me, the biggest bottleneck is not talent. It is mindset and team empowerment."

Architects need a broader view of what “architect” means. Not the classic image of the sole person at a drawing board. And not the contractor role either. The architect has to span both worlds: design thinking and delivery consequences.

The second bottleneck is empowerment. Young architects need exposure to real project running. They need to experience how details become construction methodology, not just how drawings look.

Closing thought: collaboration is the only scalable advantage

Richard says: "I’ve never believed that big results come from one person heroically doing everything. "

Even in architecture, scale comes from collaboration. It might start with “one man band,” but it should never stay there.

If you want help navigating the hard parts, the mindset is simple: don’t hide behind “by others.” Build a system where someone takes responsibility for the difficult bits. Avoiding responsibility has never led to growth, business success, or peace of mind, but facing it head-on leads to new business opportunities, trust, and new skills learned.

That is the spirit behind ByOthers architecture led by Richard Keys, and it’s a philosophy that can improve outcomes for clients, teams, and projects.

Reach out and see what’s possible when the right people are involved early. If the foundation is dependable and the scope is owned, the whole project ecosystem gets better.

Richard Keys

richard@byothers.com

https://www.byothers.com/studio