Why you should engage an Architect

Regularly, I find that few prospective clients understand what an Architect does.

Many simultaneously interview draftspeople and volume builders, while not considering the various levels of design and expertise on offer.

There is often great value in engaging an Architect.

Here are the top 5 reasons that you should consider an Architect for your next project.

1. An Architect will love your project as if it were one of their own children.

Architects invest in your project and may even become more in love with it than you are! They dream about it at night, perfecting that minute detail, imagining how the afternoon sunlight filters into the space and how the textures all work together. This starts from when you walk into their office until the project is completed. The creative mind does not stop.

2. We design for environmental sustainability

An Architects approach to sustainable design goes much deeper than the ‘tick-the-box’ minimum requirements adopted by the rest of the industry. A holistic design approach where long life, loose fit and low impact and ideas of passive solar design and embodied energy are used in every design process. Most importantly by asking lifestyle questions is possibly the most sustainable approach of all – you receive a home uniquely for you and your site that is high performance, tailored to the daily patterns of the way you use it.

3. Professional conduct

Architects, unlike draftspeople or volume builders are upheld to a high level of professional conduct, and only someone meeting the educational and accreditation requirements can call themselves an Architect. The term Architect is reserved for those that have graduated from an Architecture Degree, undergone experience across all areas of design and construction and passed written and oral exams to test contractual, administrative and construction knowledge. Continual compulsory professional development each year and a code of conduct based on values of ethical behaviour, equal opportunity, social justice and aspiration to excellence set us apart in the industry.

4. Architects are your trusted guide

Architects have significant expertise across all stages of the design and construction process. Bringing a strong design concept to fruition, there is no-one better equipped to understand the opportunities and limitations of your site and brief. We are familiar with Planning processes and building regulations, understand the work of specialist consultants and can engage meaningfully with the builder during construction.

5. Architects have creative vision

Every building is complex design exercise, balancing competing issues of functional performance, sustainability, cost, planning, cultural & site context, building regulations, engineering, construction and beauty. Technical expertise and creative vision is needed to reconcile these elements into a simple, resourceful, innovative and enduring way. Architects have creativity that stems from both technical and artistic understanding.

There is great value in having an Architect on your next project.

Till next time,