As an architect, you are familiar with the importance and difficulty of delivering an effective presentation. Architectural presentations differ from ordinary business presentations because they must offer a coherent verbal translation of a complex program and its accompanying visuals.
While other architects may understand your boards and models without your saying a word, most clients need to be led carefully through each drawing, and your language must be transparent so that your goals are understood by even the most casual observer.
In our training and research at the Yale School of Architecture, we find that architects with less presentation experience and proficiency have a tendency toward:
- Unnecessary self-narration
- Dream descriptions
- Disorganized delivery
- Excessive editorializing
View our tips for making a great architecture presentation
Highlights of Our Training
Our training helps architects to present more effectively by showing you how to boost:
- Rhetorical skills. We'll show you how to structure and edit your material, as well as ways to improve voice projection and eliminate distractions, such as verbal junk or a monotone delivery.
- Concision. Architects with less presentation experience tend to speak about what isn't being presented or what could have been, if there had been more time. Or they spend too much time discussing the genesis rather than the practical applications of their ideas. We'll show you how to cut unnecessary jargon and back story so that your innovations are clear. persausive, and accessible to your audience.
- Body language control. Distracting mannerisms and frenetic body movement can mangle even the most carefully prepared and aesthetically pleasing visuals. We'll help you to coordinate your body with your language so that your message becomes a seamless whole.
- Question and answer anxieties. No matter how dynamic the presentation, the jury - whether made up of your peers or finicky and sometimes impatient clients - must be faced and their questions answered. We'll give you proven techniques for dealing with even the most hostile audience, allowing you to state the case for your ideas with clarity and diplomacy.
- Critical interpretation. When you present a difficult program with complex designs, no matter how clear you may think your ideas are, the jury will interpret your work in ways you never intended. We'll illustrate ways to make this paradox work for you, so that no matter who your audience is, you can gain new insights and benefits.
Our Training Program
To address the key presentation challenges faced by architects and to provide the most effecitve training possible, we offer a four-part program:
- Initial "meta-lecture" on architectural presentation techniques, which gives participants the tools they need to work both individually and in groups for presentation enhancement.
- A communications assessment, a private, 25-page personal analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each participant's oral communication style, from delivery to language to strategy.
- Breakout workshops, available both individually and in groups, enabling participants to receive coaching for skills enhancement.
- Critical review, during which we observe participants as they present their work to juries, and provide detailed feedback on their presentation style and content.
Continued enhancement is available through a variety of options, which may include additional breakout workshops, personal coaching, or additional reviews that allow participants to track and evaluate their professional development.
Although our research and experience has shown that the program is most effective when offered in the order suggested above, we fully realize that time is limited in a firm or in a school studio, so we will work closely with you to design a training program that achieves the results you need.