I wrote this post last year on the topic “Why an architect shouldn’t design what the client asks for”. Well, I’ve updated it to include:

• Clients sketch
• My watercolour at design stage
• The finished house

Interesting to see how close the design was to the completed building:

Text again below:

I’ve gone through this a million times but it’s important to reiterate it again.

Why an architect should never design what the client asks for…

In a similar vein to the saying “Don’t keep a dog and bark yourself”, interestingly here’s the root of where that old saying came from; the architect brings a lot to the table and will work with you to achieve what you’re looking for but not necessarily what you would have in your mind. After all, it is the architect that is trained to interpret your requirements and to do the designing! Don’t forget also that as well as designing something you would like, the planners also have to be kept happy as well.

To explain this a little better I was looking through a current file and found the original clients sketch of what he was looking for. Now the purpose of this post isn’t to denigrate what the client drew as it was only intended as a quick sketch but what’s interesting is what we started with and now what we are ending up with. Two entirely different outcomes. It would have been very easy for me simply to have drawn exactly what the client asked for; but that is not my job. My job is to interpret and to think of something that you would not able to have considered:

Below is the finished house: