This weeks SUNDAY supplement in the Sunday Times (Ireland edition) had a piece on Irish Starchitect Dermot Bannon & his new book that is shortly to be released (Love Your Home); which I am eagerly anticipating.

In the Sunday Time’s piece he raises incredibly important points:

“We don’t blink at spending €24,000 on a new car only to watch it lose half its value in two years – we shrug and think. ‘Hey, that’s cars’ but (we won’t consider) that €12,000 could be spent designing something amazing in a house”

What’s interesting is that €12,000 isn’t a million miles away for what I am currently charging for the entire architectural service on a new house. That includes:

• Brief
• Analysis
• Sketch Design
• Developed design
• Planning Application
• Construction and Tender information
• On site inspection and certification
• AND all the services relating to S.I No. 9 of 2014!

And yet I am still frequently told; that’s too much money and yet we lose this amount on new car in depreciation.

What needs to be explained is that:

• I could we working with you on the above for several years
• The fee is broken down into stages; you don’t have to hand it over all at once
• I know the amount of time and effort that goes into your design and to ensure it’s built correctly.

I’m a big fan of Dermot Bannon and I think he’s done a great service to architects explaining what we’re about. I was explaining my job to someone recently and she said “Oh you mean like Dermot Bannon“!. I’m looking forward to his new book as he does speak a lot of sense. More on the above article and the book later…