What are some questions to ask an architect before hiring for luxury home design?

The first question to ask is who is really going to do the job, be involved in the design process and execution of the project. Making sure you are going to be able to keep a relationship with the firm’s principle.

Number two is the level of experience in construction and the level of involvement in the construction process of the architectural firm. Many firms only work in architectural design and don’t get involved in the actual construction part.

However, you need to think that a normal project is typically a 3 to 3 ½ year process in which architects will be constantly learning, feeding off new knowledge and trying new things that can go well or wrong.

A project process within that 3 ½ year process, between design, construction drawings and then the actual construction, architects can’t really learn new things until the whole cycle is complete. For this reason, an active involvement in the construction makes a total difference.

The final question and a really important one, is regarding the expertise in BIM and their experience implementing it. BIM or Building Information Modeling is the key and main tool for today’s architectural practices. Having said this, the levels of implementation are really low.

Both here, in Europe and in South America, the level of implementation is still low and architectural firms are very hesitant to making the entire change. A timid implementation is not enough. Using the BIM software does and will not make you an expert in the technology.

General content provided by Roderick Anderson in Sarco Architects, Costa Rica.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read about The main tools in architectural services