Very few people ever have more than one custom home or major remodeling project designed for them, which means that almost every time an Architect starts the design process with a homeowner, it’s the first time for at least half of the people in the room.
It’s that “design process” that you probably wonder about the most – how does it work?
It was late in the day when it finally happened. A puff of smoke appeared just over the rooftop at the far right side of the house; then another appeared, near the chimney.
Within moments smoke was pouring from the entire roof and flickers of orange flame began appearing in the windows.
A cheer went up from the assembled crowd as the flames grew; soon the roof weakened and began to collapse. A dozen firefighters stood by, cheering along with the crowd.
Years ago, I attended a trade show for kitchen and bath products in Dallas. You know the kind – huge convention hall, lots of booths, vendors hawking the latest in…whatever the latest is.
After a couple of passes around the trade show floor, filling my canvas tote bag with catalogs and brochures, I popped in on a seminar, where a representative of a national homebuilder was talking about new home design to a room full of eager builders.
I read an interesting article yesterday, written by a builder. It was about how you must hire your builder before you hire your Architect, “…because Architects don’t know anything about building…”
That might be true for the Architects that builder’s run into, but that’s a pretty broad, self-serving statement. He hasn’t met my colleagues, who spend as much time on jobsites as they can, and put together construction drawings influenced by feedback from people doing the actual construction work.
How well you and your Architect collaborate will affect how closely the design meets your needs and how much “you” ends up in the final project; after all, it’s your house!
But you don’t need a master’s degree in Architecture to have meaningful conversations with your Architect; here are a couple of ways to make sure the two of you are communicating clearly.