Value of an Architect designing your House:
If you own a house, or are thinking of building a house and are looking to have your next residential project designed, you may be interested in this subject. You owe it to yourself to read this article.
Building a custom house can be a complex and risky process. Making the wrong choice of who designs your residence can cost you tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of extra dollars, destroy your dreams, end in a lawsuit, illness, death, dismemberment and other dire consequences.
The solution? Hire a Licensed Architect who specializes in the design of custom houses to design your next residence.
Many house owners have discovered that there are
10 VALUES OF A HAVING A LICENSED RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECT DESIGN YOUR HOUSE PROJECT:
1. HOW WILL AN ARCHITECT INCLUDE WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO ME IN MY HOUSE?
An Architect is trained to take you through a thorough design process that will result in their creation of a documented PROGRAM that will incorporate your Lifestyle into the design for your house, making sure that how you want to live is how your house will be organized. An Architect starts designing AFTER gaining an understanding of what YOU want. This is called Programming, and one of the methods that makes an Architect the top talent in residential design. An Architect’s design of your house is based on what you’ve told them you want, combined with the Architect’s considerable technical experience and artistic capabilities to result in a solution that works best for you and of which you can be proud.
Value of this architectural service: priceless, when your functional needs are finally properly arranged so that your house fits you like custom-tailored clothing, made to order, especially if you look forward to going home every day to experience your custom designed residence, living life there the way you’ve always dreamed.
2. I’VE THOUGHT ARCHITECTS ARE EXPENSIVE. IS THAT SO?
Actually your Architect saves you much more than their entire fee. Your residential Architect knows the latest techniques and materials to result in your house saving more (in monthly energy costs) than the initial cost of construction over the lifetime of the house. Imagine that: your Architect can save the entire cost of your house through their energy efficient design techniques alone. How can you not afford to have an Architect design your house?
Value of this architectural service: possibly the entire construction cost of your initial residence.
3. I’D LIKE TO DOWNSIZE, BUT STILL FEEL LIKE I HAVE A SPACIOUS HOUSE
Your Architect can plan your house more creatively & efficiently than anyone else, using less square footage, while maximizing open space planning to result in a larger psychological perception of the space in your house, while building less area. Architects often have designed for governmental agencies, having to use every square inch, while building smaller projects, resulting in specialized knowledge of how to compact houses while combining spaces to make them feel larger than conventional, more compartmentalized design approaches.
Value: the cost/sf (Square Foot) of your house x the amount of space saved, + the energy and maintenance savings on the unbuilt area. This can equate to tens of thousands of dollars.
4. WHY ARE ARCHITECTS THE BEST DESIGNERS?
An Architect is the true professional of design.
Licensed Builders are trained and experienced to build. That’s why they are called Builders. They are good at building.
Licensed Architects Design.
Architects’ lengthy educational process and professional experience centers on design.
That’s why they are good at designing. It’s what they are trained to do. And that’s no small skill and can appear magical.
Anyone else proclaiming to do either and not being licensed at either, is doing so without the equivalent education, experience, responsibility, or legal licensure that insures that you’ve got the best talent available creating your house. Building a poorly designed residence can result in catastrophic flaws that can be very expensive and downright dangerous. Having an Architect design your house can help avoid this and lift your spirits as well as allow you to do what you want to do in your own residence.
Value: avoiding a disaster and obtaining the best design can be priceless.
5. WHAT ABOUT DURABILITY?
An Architect designs using time-tested, proven systems, materials and detailing to make your house last longer with less repairs and lower maintenance. They want your house to last your lifetime and beyond. Some others involved in your project may not consider this as important as your Architect does. You want an Architect designing your house and making sure that your project is built with quality materials and techniques that deliver a good value. You need your Architect involved to keep an eye on what’s going into your house.
Value: not having to do much maintenance after your home is built can save tens of thousands of dollars or more each year and untold headaches.
6. EXPLAIN HOW ARCHITECTS CAN HELP ME DEAL WITH ISSUES?
Your Architect is in your corner. Your Architect is involved in your project to help you achieve your objectives. They have the skills, knowledge and experience to help you achieve your goals. They have the artistic and technical know-how to deal with any situation that can develop in a house project. Don’t design or build without them being there to help you.
Value: having a licensed Architect representing your point of view in situations can be priceless.
7. WHAT ABOUT THE INCREASING SEVERITY OF STORMS HAPPENING THESE DAYS? 
I’ve heard thousands of people are dying in poorly designed houses when they collapse. How would an Architect help me weather those storms?
Countless are the lives lost in non-Architect designed houses in the big storms that seem to occur nearly every year these days. An Architect is more concerned about designing tougher connections and indicating stronger components so that your house can better weather fierce storms and other environmental conditions.
Value: how much is your life worth? Your spouse’s? Your children’s? Priceless.
8. I’VE HEARD ARCHITECTURE CAN AFFECT YOUR HEALTH AND IMMUNE SYSTEM. HOW DOES THAT WORK?
Nearly every year, more construction materials and methods of building are discovered to affect our health, and not always positively. A Residential Architect (licensed) is attuned to these developments, because they design houses; that’s their specialty. Other people that are not licensed as an Architect are not always as aware of these matters. An Architect designs and specifies building products, techniques and systems to result in a healthier house for you and your family.
Value: what price can you put on improving your spouse’s C.O.P.D.? Or on preventing toxic substances from being ingested into your new baby? Priceless.
9. I WANT A BEAUTIFUL HOME. HOW DOES AN ARCHITECT MAKE THAT HAPPEN?
What is beauty? Is beauty “in the eye of the beholder”? Or are there universal forms that most people will agree are…. “Beautiful”?
In most cases Beauty is not accidental. In other words, it doesn’t “just happen”. There are Design Principles taught to an Architect at major Universities and while working under the guidance of other Architects for years, that if applied well, will lead to a building that is thought to be beautiful.
What are these principles? Architects are taught: Proportion, Scale, Balance & Symmetry, Hierarchy, Order, and more. There is no magic recipe to achieving beauty; it takes knowledge, skill, experience & creativity, all of which are possessed by an Architect. An Architect won’t get their diploma if their professors don’t agree that their work has aesthetic merit.
Value: difficult to assess; it can be deemed priceless, if the mere act of looking around your custom designed house raises your spirits.
10. I’VE HEARD OF PEOPLE BEING HIT WITH EXPENSIVE CHANGE ORDERS FROM A CONTRACTOR WHEN THEY DON’T HAVE DETAILED PLANS; HOW DOES AN ARCHITECT HELP WITH THAT?
Your Architect provides detailed Construction Documents for your house. It’s his or her license on the line, plus they want you happy. An Architect knows that one of the best ways to avoid costly change orders from your Contractor is to provide a well-detailed set of Working Drawings and Specifications for your new house project. This answers the Contractor’s questions up front. The fewer questions your Builder has, the faster construction will proceed and the less likely there will be issues regarding unknown conditions. That equals price stability, based on the Architect’s more complete set of documents. No one is capable of producing a higher quality set of Construction Documents for a house or building than an Architect. They spend their lifetime learning how to to do this and do it very well.
BOTTOM LINE
Value of an Architect: potentially more than the entire initial cost of construction, your life and that of your family’s, your health, peace of mind, price stability: PRICELESS.
The purpose of this article is to familiarize you with the VALUE of having a Licensed Architect design your house. Please consider contacting an Architect. You can find one on the World Wide Web at:
www.HomeArchitects.com