The architect is a member of a team.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe problem is that the public is used to employing just one person and as an architect I often see a single person taking on all roles; from the design to the detailing and through to completion. In my opinion this is a recipe for disaster. I was speaking to a structural engineer recently who was working with a client who was breaking his heart regarding design changes (he undertook a full architectural service). It’s the architect who is trained to understand the design briefing process. It’s the architect trained in architectural design. It’s the architect who understands what the client is looking for – even when they don’t know it themselves. What’s interesting is that the Structural Engineer would prefer to do structural engineering but due to how much clients will pay and their expectations of him – he has no other choice.<\/p>\n
But we as professional do have a choice, we can choose to:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Charge the correct and appropriate fee for our services based on our training and experience \n\u2022 Educate the client to what we, and what other design professionals do in terms of a design solution specific to their requirements.<\/p>\n
When and if SI80 is implemented in March 2014, I would recommend all design professionals (whether you’re a member of the RIAI, ACEI, IEI or SCS) that we all charge an appropriate amount for our services, this is especially true when you consider the additional administrative work and liability issues when SI80 is implemented; we all know that different professions will charge at different rates and that a complete ‘Dream Team’ will cost more than a single person but we’re now at a point where it’s virtually impossible for one person to undertake the entire process (without a compromise in terms of quality or compliance) when you consider that you’ll need:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Design, construction and site inspection\/certification that ensures your project is compliant with the planning department and with the Building Regulations (the architect) \n\u2022 A structural engineering solution giving full integrity in terms of foundation, structural members design etc… (the structural engineer) \n\u2022 A design that is brought in on budget within what the banks are currently lending (the Quantity Surveyor) \n\u2022 A design that meets Part L of the Building Regulations (the registered BER assessor and Airtightness tester (both mandatory)<\/p>\n
This is in my opinion is the ‘Dream Team’<\/p>\n
Comments as always welcome…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is Part 2 following on from This is the real problem in rural Irish construction (Part 1). It takes the ‘Dream Team’ discussion …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[15,17,26,27,40,50,61,62,78,85,97,100,109],"tags":[223,226,314,366,436,488,550,551,1075,1179,1236],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
This is the real problem in rural Irish construction (Part 2) - MARK STEPHENS ARCHITECTS<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n