Architectural design is being on site.
Why would you pay for an architect to be on site (it’s called contract observation)? Because they’re the only professional looking after your best interests.
You are forced to pay the council to be on site, yet the council has a history of not looking after your interests – think leaky homes and, more recently, the flooding.
I have had a building inspector while on site ask if he could delete the slab thickening under a load bearing wall. The slab thickening is standard practice to code and if removed the floor was doomed to fail. Even more worrying was that the builder didn’t seem to understand this either.
The contractor is the expert builder and the sub-contractors, electricians, plumbers, etc the experts in their fields. Architects and the other consultants supply them with drawings and documents, and they build it. I am still amazed my little drawings on paper somehow gets turned into a full-sized building, how do they do it.
We all have our roles, but builders don’t make design decisions, architects do.
Builders and sub-contractors are businessmen, there to make a profit and as they should – it’s hard and often dirty work. Architects may listen to their advice but don’t always take it because architects see the whole project, not just bits. Architects see the end result before it’s built. They know what is important to the client and why things are drawn in a certain way.
We have removed floorboards to discover the original floor below. The builder wanted to reinstate the false floor, but we advised using the original floor level to increase the ceiling height in a low ceiling area. The builder was just reinstating while we saw an advantage for the client.
Architects communicate with clients so clients can make informed decisions. We also communicate with builders, sometimes very loudly and bluntly which clients would find hard to do. Recently I was told I had given a builder an email spanking which I found amusing.
Despite Grand Designs saying anyone can build, it’s stressful and the architect takes a lot of that stress of decision making away from you.
paul@leuschkekahn.co.nz
021 894 895
leuschkekahn.co.nz
