We all now the phrase that Architecture is 1% Inspiration and 99% perspiration. But what they don’t tell you at Architecture School is the percentage of the perspiration that is effectively war.

I’ve spoken (and tweeted before) about the battles the architect has to undertake either with planners over design issues, contractors over extras etc… and I’ve also said that building can be a difficult and stressful business; but sometimes it really does feel as if it’s a war, sometimes with the architect as general but often as grunt.

But this is what you as client are paying for; the architect to smooth the waters of planning, to work as intermediary between you and your builder – not an easy job and you need a tough skin to handle it well. Remember that you will be coming up against problems of this type only once or twice – this is what the architect has to deal with on a daily basis. As Jack Carter (Get Carter 1971) says “It’s a full time job”.

So anyway, the problems fade when the planning comes through (see photo below) and the build is complete; in fact it’s a lot like child birth; most builds are about the same amount of time – not including planning 🙂 and the pain is quickly forgotten when you see the end result.