As a registered architect and the founder of the Women Architects Collective, Joann Lui has joined Monograph as its senior content strategist. Lui brings her influential voice and unique perspective to the company and its AEC industry-specific firm management software. I recently spoke with Lui about her experience as a female architect, her pivot to the content side of the business, and the importance of personal branding.
Anna Zappia (AZ): Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you became interested in architecture?
Joann Lui (JL): I am an immigrant. I came to America in 2005. I was always interested in art and doing something creative. Not necessarily architecture, because I honestly didn’t know what architecture was when I was growing up. When I was looking at colleges and trying to decide on a major, I was thinking that I could try illustration or graphic design. My dad actually suggested that I look into architecture because I was also good at math and science. I took his advice and I enrolled at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. I didn’t know what architecture school would entail because in Hong Kong we didn’t have any programs to learn more about the profession. My first semester was intense, and I almost quit. I wasn’t expecting anything like it.
After I graduated, I started working at a small firm, mostly doing residential work. Later I moved to a medium-sized firm, and then I ended up at Gensler in 2014.
AZ: You started the Women Architects Collective in 2018. Can you tell me how it came about?
JL: I had moved on from Gensler and I was at another firm. I was the only female at my level there, and all of the males were given raises. I didn’t get a raise, and that was the first time I realized these types of things happen in architecture, which is such a male-dominated profession.
I started thinking about creating a community for women architects. I wanted it to be a space where women could have conversations that they weren’t comfortable having at their firm or with management. I wanted women to be able to find mentors. I was hearing that it was difficult to find female colleagues in leadership roles, especially in smaller firms. I started the group on Facebook to give women a platform to connect with someone, find a mentor, or just ask questions. It grew organically by word of mouth, and today we have more than 3,200 members.
AZ: How has the group evolved?
JL: The majority of our members would tell me that they weren’t being heard in the industry or they weren’t being taken seriously at work. I tried to figure out what I could do to help, and I landed on personal brand coaching. I am not a professional career coach, but I had been doing branding and marketing work for online businesses as a side hustle for a few years. Because of my own experience, I believe that if you build a brand that represents who you are and the work that you do, you don’t ever have to ask for a raise.
I think one of the biggest mistakes – not just female architects, but most young architects make when they first come into the industry is that they tend to work a lot but they’re not building their career; they are just focused on their job at the moment. Your job is always going to change, but your career is a long-term thing. That’s the mission of the Women Architects Collective right now. I want each of our members to be seen, heard, and to be known on their work journey.
AZ: Can you tell me about Monograph? Why did you want to work with the company?
JL: Monograph is project management software for architects. It was something I hadn’t seen before, and as a practitioner I wanted something like this to help me manage my projects, in terms of the technology and software. Architecture is so outdated when it comes to management and operations. We do all of these cool things on the design side, like 3D modeling and virtual reality, but never for the business side. That was something I struggled with. I reached out to the company, and I started working with them as a part-time consultant while I still had my full-time job as an architect. When they told me they had a full-time opening, I applied.
AZ: How was the transition from architecture to content strategy for you?
JL: I think it’s really hard for people to make that career switch, especially as an architect, when you’ve worked so hard for it. It was a difficult process mentally, just to convince myself that I wasn’t giving up architecture. I am using the knowledge that I have to help this startup that’s building this software that I really do believe in. Right now, I am managing the blog and website content, but I will be focusing more on thought leadership to continue to build this brand, a unique voice in architecture.
AZ: How do you think the pandemic will change architecture?
JL: My hope is that architecture firms embrace a hybrid work model. I think that having flexibility is something that architects never really considered until the pandemic forced them to. Monograph has a fully remote team and a four-day work week. We’re trying to lead by example, and hopefully, others will follow.