Data Wrangler

Material Decisions

“We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.”

- Buckminster Fuller

The impact we have as architects, engineers, and developers is greater than the spaces and places we create. We transform mundane materials to new forms, lines, and textures. In doing so, we move the earth, creating space for social life and possibilities for the betterment of humankind. Yes, it is alchemy to architect and design from raw dirt, however temporal or lasting they may be. Yet, the earth is now in a critical juncture.

The UN estimates that there will be 9.8 billion people living on the planet by the mid 21st Century. In Southeast Asia, India and Africa, most buildings that will exist in 2050 haven’t been built yet. More pressing than ever, with increasing rates of urbanisation, architects play an important role in the future of our earth. What material decisions can we make now, to sustainably tide us through this critical period of climate change to brave the unknown future?


R O L E

• You will identify sources of accurate information on sustainable building materials from around the world.
• You will search for material properties and attributes, so we can help architects, engineers, and property developers consider sustainable alternatives to concrete.
• You will verify if these materials are regulated or distributed in certain countries.
• You will consolidate these textual and numerical data from various sources. You may decide on your own methods.
• You have a keen interest on solving sustainability on a systemic level, by implementing small steps.

P E R S O N A L I T Y

• You have a keen eye for detail.
• Consistency and accuracy is key. Any errant or missing data makes you convulse.
• You believe that data can, and should be organised and structured…
• but not just for the sake of it. But because you believe in making it so that people can use it.
• You are able to set up systems, and work independently with minimal guidance.
• You take initiative to do great work.
• You’re not afraid to ask hard questions.
• You’re able to discuss reasonably and can agree to disagree.
• You’re a self-directed learner.
• You want to see this company grow into something bigger than you, me, or any individuals.

C U L T U R E

You will be employee number one. So you and I will be working closely. We will get to shape the company culture.

• I am fairly hands off, and won’t be micromanaging. I tend to ask a lot of questions, and I can come across as rather blunt.
• I enjoy working, and might text / email during off-work hours. But I don’t expect a reply.
• We will have weekly stand up meetings where we set goals together. You get to direct your own progress and productivity.
• You get to hold me accountable for things I’m responsible for. And the reverse holds true.
• The next person we hire has to be better than us.

S K I L L S

• organise information and data in a way that is query-able
• You have experience in organising and structuring large amounts of data.
• Experience with data scraping and data crawling is a huge plus
• Know of any tools that might can convert PDFs into text? Otherwise, I’m sorry, you might be expected to do quite a fair bit of copy-pasting.
• We will be working with a lot of construction material data. So if you have a background in material science, structural engineering, civil engineering, parametric architecture, or construction, that’s great!
• Being multi-lingual is a huge plus.

T O O L S

• We’re will be using Airtable for the data entry. I'm flexible and open to hear if you have better suggestions.
• Most of the data we are looking for is available publicly. So you can use any form of web crawler/ web scraper/ custom scripts. I use getdata.io and a fair bit of elbow grease. I'm sure you can do a lot better.
• For project management, I use Asana, Slack, and good old eye contact.
• We'll do regular standups and check-ins to make sure we're on the same page. And you can keep me in check.