Cay Hasselmann

Architects are often masters of hiding the ugly details or intentions as despite of everything they like the design to look nice and presentable. However sometimes architects are also good in hiding their own deviances that are often sold to others as part of their technique. So far I have seen some patterns that I … Continue reading Signs of deviance in Architecture →

I am not sure where you life, but nearly everywhere I go people complain about potholes in the streets. After looking into it, in three different countries I see that each country is spending more on potholes than 20. Years before; with very little to show in terms of good streets. This really puzzled me … Continue reading The ‘as is’ horror →

Sadly it is very easy today to deny social responsibility while appearing to do so. Architects are no exceptions so it is important to catch the signs of architects doing this, even if that may be yourself. The easiest denial in architects and the mildest form are architects that constantly appeal to higher authority such … Continue reading Denial of responsibility →

Recently I met with an urban planner in relation to a planned digitisation project. He was highly critical on the lacking understanding and foresight of business, enterprise and solution architects in his domain. He even went as far as saying that he as trained and chartered architect could not see the fundamentals that made architects … Continue reading When architecture meets architecture →

Within architecture as in every other profession we will always be confronted with the question on much we will charge on our services. Usually over time someone will express that you have no value unless you charge a lot of money. However if you buy into this all the architects and other professionals doing open … Continue reading What are you worth as an architect →

The reason that I want to talk about disruption is that when people hear others talk about disruption it creates a lot anxiety that often enough leads to mental illnesses or at least heightens the blood pressure, which is bad enough. Additionally the talk of disruption often creates an unrealistic view of what really is … Continue reading The disruption smoke screen →

Most of my articles give little to nothing away of my own personal being. The main factor that drove me to write about myself were the articles where others constantly emphasising on their engineering and military background. Well with me it was very different. First I was born 2 month late with a Cesarian, which … Continue reading My way into architecture →

There are often a lot of people in big data architecture that are often lacking knowledge in data science, so in my observation the most common mistakes in big data projects are not in technology, but in the following areas: Everything builds on one master model. The problem is that when you need accuracy you … Continue reading Common mistakes in big data architecture →

As architects we often end up in strategy execution tasks that place us in or near the upper management. The most dangerous thing is that we actually lose the specific skills and value add of our profession. It is not uncommon to see architects creating PowerPoint or similar where when you remove the word ‘architecture’ … Continue reading Empty architecture →

There are a few mental peculiars amongst architects that I feel it is important to mention in my blog. The confirmation bias, the tendency to interpret information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs, is especially strong amongst architects, as we all like to work on solutions while we gather data. As long as we … Continue reading Profesional quicksand →

Confucius may not be a reference point often used by western architects, but it does no harm to at some wisdom. The wisdom I am talking here is that we usually create an overestimation of skills that we have developed ourself, while we also underestimate skills we have learned the hard way. This is specific … Continue reading Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance →

If you sometimes feel that way you are a high achiever, as true impostors do not feel that way but everyone who truly is doing great things feels that way. This little but not well known piece of psychology is quite important for many in our line of work. The reason is that it is … Continue reading Are you feeling like an impostor or fraud ? →