Being an architect, the most important thing you must be good at is Design. But aside from design, you also have to be good at business, human resource management, being a manager, and most especially, communicating your design well to the clients and the people in general. This means that you have to be a good storyteller. Almost all successful architects have this skill. Take a look at Bjarke Ingel’s Ted Talks, and you will know what I mean. And look at Frank Gehry’s Master Class. Now, why is being a good storyteller important for your architecture profession? Here are three reasons why.

1. Able to convey your concepts

Being a good storyteller means you are able to convey your concepts well to the world in a manner that is understandable not only to architects and design professionals but to the entire species that is not designed inclined. How do you do this? After designing and making a concept brief, request your non-design colleagues to read it and ask if they can understand. If they can’t, you must change your brief a bit. Once you have finalized your brief, create nonrealistic images to convey such a concept.  Being able to convey this story about how the concept was turned into a structure will help your design be viable and significant. To summarize this point, make a script or a brief, have it checked, and then turn it into non-realistic images.

2. Able to translate your technical expertise to laymen’s terms

Another reason why architects should be good storytellers is that with this skill, you are able to translate technical expertise to laymen’s terms. For example, if people ask you what a rainwater catchment is, you can easily say it is merely a barrel for rainwater storage.  Say it all like a story, showing the main point that people should use rainwater catchment.

3. Be relatable 

Being a good storyteller will make you relatable. This means that your ideas are not flying away to the heavens and rather, grounded to the realities of the world. To do this, make sure you are always actively reading about the news, both design and general news about our society.

4. Able to speak well to the public

Lastly, being a good storyteller means you are able to speak well in public. Some architects are not comfortable with this, and this is fine. But most of those who shine are good public speakers. In other words, they have confidence in sharing their concepts, thoughts, ideas, and, most especially, their design.