Architecture and Blogging: The Surprising Similarities I Didn’t Expect

Architecture and blogging have more in common than I expected.

When I first started blogging, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. I’ve always considered myself a creative person—but an architect first, not necessarily a writer. Architecture is a profession that requires deep creative thinking, but it is also grounded in technical knowledge, coordination, and problem-solving. It asks you to think through systems, anticipate how people will move through space, and understand how a single decision can ripple through an entire project.

As I continued blogging and learning more about the process, I realized it operated in a surprisingly similar way. Blogging goes far beyond writing and sharing pretty photos. There’s SEO optimization, image sizing and naming, internal linking, analytics, and site organization layered beneath the surface. And as I listen to other bloggers talk about their struggles, I often hear the same challenge: learning how to balance creativity with analytical thinking. That realization stopped me—because it felt immediately familiar.

It made me realize that being an architect had quietly trained me for blogging in ways I hadn’t expected. The more time I spend doing both, the more clearly I see how closely they’re connected.

Ways Architecture and Blogging are Similar

1. Using both the Creative and Analytical Brain
2. Seeing the bigger picture
3. Designing for User Experience
4. Behind the Scenes Work is more than people realize
5. Details Matter
6. Iteration is part of the process
7. Constraints Shape the Design
8. Building Something that Lasts
9. The Design Process Never Ends

1. Blogging and Architecture Require both the Creative and Analytical Brain

Architecture requires design ideas, thinking about materials, and the spatial experience.  But it also involves knowledge of building codes, coordination with consultants like structural engineers, technical drawing, and problem solving.

Blogging requires storytelling, writing, photography, and branding.  But it also requires knowledge of SEO, analytics, site structure, and image optimization.

Architects are used to switching between these ways of thinking constantly to produce a design that can actually be built.  I’ve been on calls recently with bloggers talking about having a hard time with either the analytical or the creative side of blogging and it made me realize how much architects have trained both sides of their brains.   

2. Seeing the Bigger Picture

Architects are used to having to oversee an entire building design while keeping an eye on all the details and make sure it is all coordinated. 

Blogging requires maintaining an overall theme and brand while publishing related posts and keeping track of the parts to make sure they interlink. 

Both architecture and blogging require the ability to keep an eye on the bigger picture while being able to zoom into small details to have an overall strong design that ties together. 

3. Designing for User Experience

Architects design physical space that people live and work in.  It involves circulation, light, sightlines, and spatial flow.

Blogging designs for website navigation, readability, headings, internal links and must understand how readers scan content.

At the core, architecture and blogging are both about how people move through something, whether that is a physical space or a website. 

4. Behind the scenes work is much more than people realize

Architecture is much more than just drawing. Drawings take into consideration code compliance, consultant coordination, permitting, and details.  Making sure those details align with the overall design takes a lot of time.

Blogging involves writing, considering SEO, image optimization, adding internal links, posting to Pinterest, formatting posts, and adding alt text to images. 

The visible output of both blogging and architecture hides a huge process.  From the outside, they look much simpler than they are.

5. Details Matter in Architecture and Blogging

Architectural details involve transitions, materials, alignment, and coordination of small details and systems. 

Blogging requires considering spacing, typography, image layout, captions, headings, and formatting.  Not to mention the actual content. 

Details matter more than people think.  People may not consciously notice, but they can feel when something is well designed.  Taking the time to work through details can determine if something feels professional.

6. Iteration is Part of the Process

The Architectural process involves Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents, and revisions.

Blogging requires drafting, editing, SEO optimization, updating old posts, content refreshing, and adding links to new posts.

Architecture and blogging both involve change and development over time.  Even after a post is published, when new content is added there is thought involved to go back and relate previous posts to something new. 

7. Constraints Shape the Design

Architecture has a lot of constraints that shape the design such as zoning requirements, project budget, site shape and size, and building codes.

Blogging must consider keywords, search intent, algorithms, and formatting.

Both blogging and architecture involve designing with specific restraints.

8. Building Something that Lasts

In the end, Architecture produces a building or remodel that will last for years to come. 

Blogging creates a website, a virtual piece of real estate that lives on the internet for anyone in the world to discover. 

Both blogging and architecture involve seeing something take shape over time and building a portfolio.  They are both a process of creation that can be built upon over time. 

9. The Design Process Never Ends

In Architecture, you can design forever.  At some point, the project must get built. Even at each milestone deadline, there is a time to decide when to put the pencils down and print.  Even when construction is complete, I will walk through a site and know the detail I didn’t figure out, what I want to improve in the next project.  Fine tuning, design, and learning never end. 

Blogging also involves a design process that could be massaged and edited forever.  But if we want people to see our work, at some point we must decide to hit publish.  Of course we continue to revise and revisit work later, because the process never really ends. 

In both architecture and blogging, I find I never feel like a design is ever done.  I just have to decide when it is time to stop and print, let the work out into the world, and continue to revisit it, revise it, and keep learning and improving. 

Architecture and Blogging are Creative at the Core

At their core, both architecture and blogging are creative disciplines supported by technical knowledge, all in service of creating something that people can actually use and move through with ease. The more I spend time doing both, the more clearly I see their similarities—and how much my training as an architect has shaped the way I approach blogging. In different ways, they are both long-term acts of building. And honestly, I love them both.