What Buildings Taught Me About Communication

I didn’t expect to learn about messaging from concrete and glass.  
But I did.

In one of my undergrad courses at Carleton University, we studied how architecture communicates. Not in a metaphorical sense — but in a very real, sensory way.

A building says something before anyone speaks.  
It tells you if you belong there.  
It signals what kind of behavior is expected.  
It makes you feel open or guarded, welcome or watched.

And once you start noticing, you can’t unsee it.  
The narrow hallway that makes you rush.  
The grand staircase that makes you pause.  
The glass office that signals transparency or surveillance, depending on who’s looking.

Design Is Messaging  
That course shifted how I think about communication.  
It taught me that structure sends signals, long before the words do.

Comms Is Spatial, Too  
The best communicators aren’t just wordsmiths. They’re experience designers.  
They think about:  
- Where the message will show up  
- What emotional state the audience will be in  
- How the layout, spacing, format, and flow will affect what’s absorbed or ignored

Just like a building, communication can be noisy or quiet. Functional or confusing. Welcoming or exclusive.

So What Do We Do Differently?  
- Ask: What does our communication architecture say, even before we speak?  
- Build moments of pause, not just volume  
- Design spaces (physical or digital) that reinforce the messages, not compete with them  
- Think beyond the page. Communication lives in time, space, and culture.

What the Walls Say Matters  
Communication doesn’t just come from comms teams.  
It comes from the systems, environments, and experiences people move through every day.

Sometimes, to write better, we need to look up from the keyboard and listen to what the buildings are already telling us.