Maggie Planchat

What is your career story? How did you get where you are today?

I did my Bachelor’s at MIT, where I worked on digital fabrication research with Larry Sass. Through a series of random events, I got connected with someone from the UK—a general contractor—who was really interested in my research. Even though I initially wanted to pursue a Master’s degree directly after my Bachelor’s, I decided to get some real-world experience first.

I ended up working in the UK for a year and a half with Laing O'Rourke, where I looked into their various digital modeling and coordination techniques and explored how to unify and standardize those processes, especially as they were in the early stages of implementing BIM on site. After that, I looked to change gears and gain more architectural experience, so I took on a six-month internship in Lausanne, Switzerland. There, I worked at a classic Swiss architectural firm and was primarily involved in architecture competitions.

After two years abroad, I went back to MIT to complete my MArch, finishing in 2011. After graduating, I jumped in with both feet into the Swiss market. I moved to Zurich and learned German, where I worked at Burkhalter Sumi, a firm well-known for its affinity for design but also for its built works. After a short spell there, I moved on to a boutique firm called Nau (now called Nau2), where I stayed for five years. There, I learned an enormous amount about design detailing, construction, and project management, but I eventually realized that I wanted to pursue career growth through larger, BIM-oriented projects.

Now, I’m working at FSP Architects, located just outside of Zurich. The firm is well-known in the local industry for its level of digitalization including BIM-adoption and methodological approach, as well as planning and executing complex projects. I was able to take on more responsibility in the company quite quickly, managing projects and leading my own team. In 2022, after participating in and winning the largest bid our office had seen to date, I became the project manager and directed a team for the planning stages of that 400+ Million Dollar project. With that amount of responsibility, it was a natural extension for me and other team leaders to take a more overarching role in the direction of the company. In cooperation with the owners, we developed and implemented a transformation process to take over as the next generation of leadership; I’ve now been the CEO of FSP since July 2023.

What skills do you use on a day-to-day basis?

My days vary, but on Mondays, I focus on managing my team. I look at who’s working on what, with which priorities, who has a lot on their plate, and who might need some help. There’s also a focus on internal meetings, alignment, and training, where we compare stats and discuss the challenges we’re facing and our approach to those.

I also get involved in the project side, not so much as a project manager but more as an overarching project lead or key account manager. I spend a lot of time in client meetings, dealing with contracts, developing solutions for things that aren’t going right, managing financial aspects of the company, and working on potential leads, proposals, and presentations. I also work on setting up new projects with clients to get the team started on the right foot. My time is split about 50/50 between project work and more overarching responsibilities.

Being an architect is all about providing a service. Unlike tradespeople, we’re face-to-face with clients, so people skills are incredibly important. I’m constantly coordinating people in my own team, as well as engineers and specialists in the wider team, managing clients and their expectations, and making recommendations for the way forward. Dealing with their uncertainties is part of the job. In architectural education, you usually get a brief on a piece of paper, but in the industry, the person on the other side is much more than a brief—they are humans with requirements, needs, and emotions. It’s important that they feel heard and understood.

What were the biggest skills/mindsets/approaches you took away from your architecture education?

One of the strongest aspects of architecture education is developing an approach to a problem. You take on a challenge, start with an analysis, look at the broader context, and then zoom in. This approach is useful no matter where you work or what you’re doing.

What do you wish you had learned in your architecture education?

Because I knew I wanted to be a practicing architect, I wish there had been more emphasis on the practical side of actually getting things done, especially on the construction side. Studio culture isn’t reflective of how the real world operates—spending a huge amount of time there is something you feel you have to do, but what you produce is more of a creative exercise. Those crazy ideas you produce in the studio get built maybe once in a lifetime. In the real world, people need housing and fundamental infrastructure. Firms are typically concerned with projects like building new homes, offices, schools or hospitals—spaces a human needs to exist and thrive.

There’s a different kind of creativity in practice—looking at the same approach to a fundamental requirement as well as how to actually execute a design concept. I remember there was a semester in my Master’s program when we had only one course on professional practice, and it was worth almost no credits. It was seen by many students as an unimportant obligation, and I found that attitude disappointing. 

What advice do you have for students starting out in design?

Go visit construction sites and see the wider world. There’s beauty in all manner of spaces — it’s not only found in the unbelievable structure some famous architect just built, it’s also there in the spaces that bring people joy and address a need. Seeing the world has a huge impact on any kind of education. It’s also crucial for architects to see how things are actually built. If you’re just designing without understanding construction, you’re not seeing the full picture. My experience working at a general contractor was invaluable—I saw works being executed in tough conditions on site and gained an understanding for how our designs impact the way construction details come together. That’s deeply enriching and something every architect should experience.