By Luc Mandret
For almost eight years now, Régis Robin has been one of the pillars that keeps the Archetype Group as solid as ever. He started his journey with the company in 2014 and held the role of Architectural Design Manager. He was later promoted to a senior position and was in charge of the architectural team for industrial, airports and infrastructure projects.
In 2019, Régis took over the role of Architectural Design Director and just one year later he ended up in his current position with the company. He currently leads a team of 60 people dedicated to delivering every part of a project assigned to them, collaborating with different profiles of experts – from engineers to architects to project managers and draftsmen.
“Keep doing your job well and move on to the next step.”
The principle of Régis is honesty – “We don’t try to oversell or hide anything from our customers”, whether on budget or when his opinion is asked, he is always reliable. His dream is to stabilize what they have with the team, “keep doing a good job and move on to the next step.” He hopes the world will see the quality of the work Vietnam is doing and the potential the country can show.
In this month’s Meet The Experts episode, we had the opportunity to speak with Régis Robin — the Director of Design Operations in Vietnam for Archetype Group. He shared the details of his position, his approach to new projects and his advice to the younger generation.
Tell us about your role and responsibilities at Archetype in Vietnam
My role is to oversee the entire design in Vietnam and ensure that all projects are delivered on time, on budget and to the highest quality standards – from the management of the architects to the structure, the MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing), and basically everything in the master plan. I also ensure good communication and cooperation between different disciplines. Otherwise, we can’t achieve the project goal and our customer’s satisfaction
You manage more than one discipline and you work for each project with several people from different departments. When does your work start and when does it end?
Basically it depends on the contract we sign. For example, on industrial projects, we usually sign what we call EPCM (Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management), which means we start when the LOA (Letter of Award) is signed.
But sometimes I intervene before the bidding stage, as we did with the most recent industrial client we were involved with before the formalities. As for where it ends, most of the work will end with the construction design. However, we still have a responsibility to respond to all requests from the contractors regarding design clarifications during construction.
After every first meeting with customers, ideas are thrown left and right. How do you approach new projects and what is your process?
First, if the client has a clear idea, that’s a good start. For construction reference, we usually get our client’s input and their references first, but we don’t stick to that. It’s not because we don’t respect the customer. It is about our desire to think out of the box, which is in the DNA of Archetype Group as a consultancy. It is a challenge we set ourselves to think better and produce excellent ideas. It is important to know what the client wants, but with all the experience gained on so many different projects, we are happy to propose new concepts that add value to our client’s project. If the customer doesn’t approve, we can always go back or look for alternative ideas.
The goal is to take the customer’s demands and blend them into a new idea that would challenge the customer and take them out of their comfort zone. That is it. But if we go too far, we find the good in between. We then agree on what the customer agrees and implement it.
For me, the most essential part of the process is listening to what the customer has to say. They usually share feedback about their past experiences in their previous buildings and would like us to improve on that: listen – learn – utilize. So what we do is we take it all and execute the project in the right way.
Tell us more about your creative journey. Where do you get inspiration from?
I am also a photographer personally. That is one of my passions at heart. I really enjoy doing it. I enjoy looking at the work of photographers and in my spare time I also like to take pictures. During my creative journey with Archetype, photography is at the heart of my inspiration: when we’re working on the sketch or the renders, I always see the photos I’d like to take of the design we’re processing. I capture the photography of our final design and I can create the shapes, curves, shadows and frames myself. This process is fascinating.
What advice would you give the younger generation?
I would say listen, analyze and try to understand what is in front of you. Communicate well, because communication is key. But it’s also kind of funny, I’d say be patient, but I’m here today because I was impatient. Be patient, still, because many of the things the elders tell us are true, we just have to persevere to see it. And it’s also good to be impatient, because if you don’t push, you get nothing. You have to know what you want to make that possible.
I like one of Jack Ma’s visions about the different stages of your working life. He said that when you’re 20 to 30 years old, you need to follow a good boss and join a good company to learn how to do things right. If you’re 30 to 40 years old, if you want to do something yourself, just do it. You can still afford to lose, to fail. I believe there is much to learn from failures. Then Jack Ma said we should prioritize stability, family and future generations. Then work on sharing what you have learned in your life with others. One should not keep to oneself what they have, it should be shared. And finally, when we get to 40 to 50 years old, he suggests that we should do things that we are good at.
I also listen to Simon Sinek’s podcasts, which have broadened my view on relationships. He also talks about leadership, optimism, confidence and basically everything about life. His thoughts and the way he conveys them really motivates me.
Thank you, Regis
