DesignIntelligence
DFC Intelligence

Insight | Foresight

Articles, podcasts, and videos from senior design leaders on the future of the profession.

567 published pieces
Article · 6 min read
Experimenting Is Everywhere. Transformation Isn’t.

AI Readiness Field Notes, No. 1. Design firms are trying the tools. Very few have changed how they lead, price, staff or deliver the work.

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Michael Keene
November 2026
Article · 18 min read
How to Write a Change Statement for Your Design Firm

A diagnosis tells you where your firm stands. A change statement says what it will do about it. A practical guide for design firm leaders fa…

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Design Futures Council
October 2026
Article · 5 min read
What Is Design Worth? Ricardo Álvarez-Díaz on Value, Judgment and the Architect’s Role

The co-founder of Álvarez-Díaz & Villalón on getting paid for early-stage knowledge, shrinking from 50 people to 27 while revenue rose, and …

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Ricardo Álvarez-Díaz
October 2026
Article · 4 min read
How to Run an AI SWOT Analysis at Your Design Firm

A practical, step-by-step guide for architecture and design firm leaders to diagnose where AI strengthens and threatens their practice.

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Design Futures Council
October 2026
Article · 18 min read
Where’s Waldo? Finding the Human in Human-AI Collaboration at Design Firms

Adapted by the Design Futures Council from articles Patrick Scannell wrote for attendees of DFC’s September 2026 Leadership Summit, and from…

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Pat Scannell
September 2026
Article · 4 min read
The Magic Wand Doesn’t Ask: AI and the Lessons of Normal Accidents, with Patrick Scannell

A structural engineer skipped one recalculation. A year later, 114 people died. Technologist Patrick Scannell on what that has to do with ho…

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Design Futures Council
August 2026
Article · 5 min read
A Cruise Ship on Land: Scott Simpson on Las Vegas, Novartis, and what design is worth

Design creates enormous value. Scott Simpson, FAIA, principal at five architecture firms and CEO of two over a five-decade career, has spent…

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Design Futures Council
August 2026
Article · 5 min read
When You Build, You Unbuild: The Significance You May Not Intend

The crowded, dilapidated buildings in the city started to disappear. Scaffolding went up overnight. Streets that had been lined with laundry…

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Design Futures Council
June 2026
Article · 6 min read
The Misdirected Narrative: Significance and the Built Environment

“A good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub.” — James Joyce, Ulysses On June 16, the streets of Dublin fill with an unusua…

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Design Futures Council
June 2026
Article · 3 min read
What is Significance?

We use the word significance with ease. An award is a significant achievement. A shift in the market is a significant warning. A personal de…

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Design Futures Council
June 2026
Article · 4 min read
The Future of Design and Humanity: Returning to Fundamentals 

We live in a time of confusion. As truth is increasingly treated as subjective, the notion of a shared or universal truth has eroded. Withou…

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Design Futures Council
May 2026
Article · 6 min read
What is Essential?

If everything is essential, then nothing is. We use the word essential constantly. In meetings, strategies, and briefs, things are described…

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Design Futures Council
May 2026