The ‘Architects on your Doorstep’ project has three gold-coloured vans which tour the region, generating home makeover ideas in a drive to drum up work for the coalition of 14 firms.
The system uses a scanner attached to a phone which takes images of the property then displays a unique AI ‘futurevision’, created either entirely automatically, prompted by the onboard driver, or using the practice’s back catalogue of projects.
Irma Fup of Wednesbury-based Hartoo Swallow – who came up with the idea last year – said the move was already paying dividends, having already picked up two extension projects and a further job by word of mouth.
She told the AJ: ‘Architects don’t do enough to show everyday people what they can do for them. Yes, this is a gimmick, and no, the completed schemes won’t look like the giant billboard.
‘But it gets people excited and thinking about the possibilities of their own home – often for the first time. We’ve had some great chats on the street with residents. The most common conversation is “I want it, how much does it cost?’’’
Fup said they were now working on some accurate and easy-to-understand costing tools which, she claimed, would get more accurate as they carried out more and more jobs.
She went on: ‘We rotate who uses the vans and they’ve only been hired for a three-month period. So you’ve got to be clever about when you go out and about.
‘Everybody wants the tea-time slot. It does mean working outside of the usual 9 to 5. But it is starting to pay off both for us and others. And, frankly, for the profession more widely.’
The Architect on your Doorstep initiative is looking to expand beyond small-scale residential projects and has been used to help local councillors and planning officers on a high-street regeneration scheme.
The cost of hiring the vans, screens and technology has been split between the practices, which also includes emerging firms Faux and Partners and Lye & Lye.
Historically architects have not advertised their services dating back to the last century, when it was banned and deemed ‘unprofessional’. That ban was lifted in the 1970s.
Architects on your Doorstep