SCA Quick Take - Interface Carolinas Multifamily

Our Principal, Steven, recently attended the Interface Carolinas Multifamily conference. We sat down with him to ask a few questions about his time there and what he learned from the conference as well as his biggest takeaway from the conference - read below for our SCA Quick Take:

Q: What did you enjoy most about the conference?

A:

Steven: I enjoyed learning about the financial and market development side of the business that we, as architects, rarely become involved with. Our project's scope and feasibility are often dictated by what happens during this phase of development, so to have a better understanding of the market impacts that affect project development will be useful when working with clients to create master plans that appropriately respond to market trends.

Q: Who or what company did you enjoy meeting at the conference and why?

A:

Steven: I enjoyed meeting the people from Harkins Builders. They had a representative speak during a session relating to current trends in the Architecture, Design, and Construction spaces and I thought he provided great insight, from the GC's perspective.

Q: What’s your biggest takeaway or “ah-ha” moment from the conference?

A:

Steven: My biggest takeaway came from an architect with Dwell Design Studio when he was discussing the recent trends in the amenity spaces for Mulit-Family projects. He stated that as more and more people are working from home and using the amenity spaces as "home offices", the need for large, communal gathering spaces has declined in favor of small, intimate spaces, or pods. Coming from the Senior Living design world, this is drastically different than how I think about and design spaces for these projects because community gathering spaces are very important to those residents.