Lela Alempijević, Zabirskie partner, was one of the panelists of the forum as part of the accompanying program of the annual exhibition of the members of the Women’s Architectural Society (ŽAD).
Photo: Marija Simeunović
The 21st century increased practices and businesses in architecture where women are the founders, and the last decade brought a significant increase in them in Serbia and the region. Jelena Iivanović Vojvodić (Biro VIA), Anja Milić (Arhi.pro), Sanja Ćirić (Archi nova), and Lela Alempijević (Zabriskie) spoke about challenges, successes, and experiences. The moderator was Marija Simeunović. We highlight the most interesting parts of Lela’s presentation.
Speaking about what she considers the biggest business success, Lela pointed out:
“I measure the success of my role in the company and the measurement of work results through two criteria: one is the degree of client satisfaction, i.e. the percentage of those who return to us and stay with us. I consider this criterion very valid, in that part I can still make some progress, but I must say that I am delighted that we have clients who have been with us for ten years. Winning the trust of the client is in fact a new way to win a new space for work and for pushing the boundaries in our projects.
The second criterion by which I measure the results of my work is the satisfaction of the employees, because when you conquer those spaces for moving the boundaries, you need an agile, ambitious, rested, dedicated, and motivated team with the desire and goal to move them”.
Speaking about what made Zabriskie stand out on the market and influenced the development and growth of the business, Lela stated that it was the conscious recognition and filling of space on the market – between large engineering systems and small author teams, the fact that we managed to unify in the approach the best of those two business concepts, the flexibility, dedication, and ambition of small teams and the resources and organization of large systems.
When asked what was the turning point in your practice, after which you made the most progress on the market, Lela pointed out:
“I would like to point out that what moved us forward as a company and initiated a retrospective of our way of working, and therefore innovations in approach, was precisely an unsatisfied client. In these 8-9 years, we had one situation that was challenging for us in terms of the relationship with the client. That situation forced us to look objectively at all the circumstances that caused an unsatisfied client, and that helped us to completely improve our way of working for the last 4 years, we introduced clients deeper into the design process, and we introduced reports and sections that inform about weekly progress, we distributed in much more detail and described all the roles in the team, introduced that we ask for explicit feedback from the client, to ask him how satisfied he is and if he has any suggestions so that we could improve cooperation, time measurement, etc. This resulted in exceptional success in the projects that followed us. So I can say from the aspect of my work that an unsatisfied client is the greatest teacher if we find the strength to truly face his dissatisfaction and see how we contributed to it.”
As part of this year’s exhibition, the Women’s Architecture Society awarded the Jelisaveta Načić Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024 to Milenija Marušić for her exceptional contribution to the profession during her career.
Inspired by the personality and works of the first woman architect in Serbia, the Jelisaveta Načić award was designed as a recognition given by colleagues to colleagues who during their working life successfully jumped over all obstacles, overcame or ignored social prejudices and managed to realize their ideas and dreams so that their projects and realized objects, but also their life principles, humanistic approach to work and professional ethics, an inspiration for all female architects.
Photo: ŽAD