Build it and they will come
Why engage an architect? All over the country there are building and renovating projects going ahead without the aid of an architect.
Useful plan books heave with standardised designs to coax a house out of the ground. Many plans will bear the fingerprints of an architect and make it through planning. Why bother employing an architect at all?
Well, the fees for a fully trained architect, a member of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) will form a fraction of most building budgets. If you wouldn’t cut your own hair, don’t design your own house or extension.
Find out more about what the training and work of an architect entails at the website www.riai.ie.
Their training is like no other — for the best potential to tailor a great house or extension to your highly specific site, and the most cost effective result in realising it, an architect will bring unique talent, technical skill and sheer imagination to the project.
If you don’t have a recommendation, the search facility on the website allows you to investigate architects by locality and speciality, to winnow down a short list of potential firms and individuals.
You can even submit your project for consideration for a competition and the RIAI have introduced a free quote facility too. Look over the portfolios available to consider if this firm has delivered buildings that reflect your taste and world view.
If you want a passive house for example, choose a firm that has already risen to that challenge.
Once you have at least three names, call their offices to determine if the firm is still in business and if they are available to consider your project during a timeframe that suits you.
Suggest a preliminary meeting to outline what you’re looking for and what the practise can offer. This meeting will be free, but don’t expect to stroll off with copyrighted sketches without the inclusion of a fee.
There are various degrees of involvement when working with an architect.
This starts from having a design study made up or a full set of working plans for a contractor, to a full service agreement where the architect oversees the entire build from gaining planning permission, to administering other construction contracts, signing off, right down to the final finishes.
Could you say, gather tenders from building contractors or find a quantity surveyor to handle the construction accounts? The technical expertise of your architect with their established contacts and experience coordinating trades and professionals, can shield you from expensive mistakes, and haunting provisional costings that can inflate a rookie budget.
If you are engaging someone on a full service basis, the design study is the first step in a lengthy working relationship. Take a look at the ‘20 Questions Before You Get Started’ offered at the RIAI site for a lead into your ideas for change.
The RIAI estimate the cost of retaining an architect at between 9-11% of the contracted total sum for an extension of up to €500,000.
This was based on a survey in 2008, but times have changed, so you may find a much better deal on the table.
Most practices have a staged payment arrangement where 25% of their total fee will be expected after each phase of the project is complete.
An agreed amount can be retained by you for 12 months in order to identify and rectify any problems as they arise.
If you elect to limit the architect’s role to drawing up a design suitable for the planners, you’ll be on a set fee.
Ensure you are fully aware of any expenses that may fall outside the basic fee, and ensure they are outlined in the contract.
An ‘opt out’ clause in a staged payment contract allows both parties to withdraw with some degree of dignity after the current stage payment has been made.
The purpose of the first formal meeting after contract is to prepare those first drawings in a design study of the project.
If you have a partner, both of you should attend the meetings, if possible, and you should both be there for the first one without fail.
The meeting can take place in the architect’s office, at the site, or at your home, an obvious choice if you’re doing alterations.
Things to think through before first meeting will include a firm idea of your available budget, bedroom and bathroom numbers, any particular lifestyle demands, the inclusion of all paperwork including any current planning permission, site maps etc.
All these topics will coax out a much fuller discussion or ‘brief ’ giving your potential architect not only a technical insight, but a gut level feel for who you are as individuals.
We’re not all Terence Conran. If you find it hard to put visual ideas into words, bring pictures pulled from magazines or snaps of building types and interiors that appeal to you.
You’re not helping yourself or the architect by being coy in the face of a designer’s more informed sense of aesthetics.
A breakdown in communication can lead to bitter argument at best, and the evolution of a house that makes the client feel personally bewildered, at worst.
Have an established means of contact agreed from the start and keep in touch.
With the wonders of computer aided design, you can participate in the evolution of your house or extension, have plans forwarded by email and be fully informed of every change and challenge if you’re not on site.
Keep an open mind and be highly communicative — it’s appropriate. Ensure you hold copies of the plans inside and out showing any revision.
Mark them with a date as multiple changes can leave you with a sheaf of unidentified copies of the same plan with minute differences.
If you do decide to use the architect to oversee the build, let him or her do their job and resist second guessing agreed plans with covert instructions to the builders on site.
Again the best way to avoid problems is to give them a good airing long before a signature reaches the pages or a shovel touches the ground.
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