Crowdsourcing architecture and interior design
Arcbazar is a terrific concept that mostly delivers. Their customer service has largely been one person, busy but well-intentioned and generally capable of handling issues. I'm told they're upgrading it, which would be an improvement. And there are some technical limitations which bring it down from five stars to four in my view.
I would love to see what Arcbazar could do with a truly robust, fully-featured web platform, because it's already pretty terrific even with a relatively basic one. The heart of its greatness is, of course, the designers. Advanced students and young professionals worldwide, in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and interior design compete to show you what they can do with YOUR specific, personal project. You assign winners, who divide up your prize money according to a formula (with AB getting a cut off the top), but no matter who wins, you get to keep all the ideas, images, etc to use as you see fit. You can also invite your winner (or, in theory, anybody else you wish from your competition) to continue on working with you and your building team to realize your design.
I have run four contests through AB so far. Two were just for fun -- I wanted to see what my basic ideas would look like in the hands of professional designers -- and two were put into practice. For the latter, I didn't use any one design exactly as the architect gave it to me... instead, I took the features I liked best from several, and melded them together into something not quite like any of the designs. But the best designs helped me solve problems that I didn't have the knowledge to handle myself, such as how to arrange all the necessary features of a bathroom plus plenty of storage in a tiny and slightly oddly-shaped space. I have lived with the spaces I designed based on my AB contests for several years now and I'm very happy with them. I couldn't have done so well without my AB designers.
16 settembre 2022
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