A common practice among homeowners is to look for an architect, designer, and contractor separately. Homeowners don’t look at the three roles as part of a single team, which leads to conflicts and a mismatch of expectations.
Maintaining a strong relationship between the architect, designer, and the contractor is the key to building your dream house seamlessly. Before we take a look at the advantages of forging a strong relationship between the three roles, let’s quickly understand the differences between them.
What do architects do?
Architects design not just homes but all types of buildings such as hospitals, schools, and hotels, among others. They design the blueprints by taking into consideration the requirements of the homeowner as well as the local city building codes and the building safety requirements.
After finalizing the blueprints, they also closely supervise as contractors take over to build the designed space and interior designers set out to decorate the interiors of the designed space.
What do designers do?
Designers handle the interior decor of your space, which may include choosing color palettes, furniture, flooring, and lighting — everything required to bring your home to life based on your preferences and the home structural design.
Like architects, they’re also equipped with doing space planning for not just homes but all types of buildings such as hotels, office spaces, hospitals, and more.
What do contractors do?
Contractors transform the blueprints developed by the architect into reality within a specified timeline. They work closely with the architect to use the right materials and layouts as per the blueprint and local city building guidelines. Involving contractors from the onset can help understand what’s feasible within the homeowner’s budget.
The advantages of strong architect, designer, and contractor relationships
Building projects start with design and then move on to construction. However, involving the key groups of your housing project — the architect, the designer, the contractor — right from the beginning helps build your dream house while keeping your budget and aspirations in check.
1. Set realistic goals
Every project has unique needs. Involving all three groups and having them working together from as early on as possible will ensure that every need gets considered. Construction projects require frequent changes and involving everyone will help you understand how each change will impact the big picture. It helps them set realistic goals and not lose focus of the most important factors.
2. Avoid costly redesigns and delays
When all three groups work together, you end up saving money and time. For example, a contractor has to order building materials even before the construction begins. If the architect communicates with the contractor as soon as the blueprint gets finalized, the contractor can mention accurate cost estimates and the materials that will be used.
The architect can verify whether the materials chosen will match the design intent while sticking to the budget. If that doesn’t happen, either the architect can make some adjustments to the plan or the contractor can procure materials that serve the purpose while not exceeding the budget. Not having these two parties communicate will lead to costly redesigns, which end up causing several delays and leave the homeowner dissatisfied.
3. Solve problems efficiently
Often, architects and contractors must work together to fix problems that may crop up during construction, which isn’t that uncommon. For example, several construction problems aren’t visible until the ground is broken.
Successfully resolving these problems requires the architect to work closely with the contractor and tweak the original plans according to the situation while ensuring that they don’t steer away from the original design plans. If there isn’t a proper relationship between these two roles, then that’s a recipe for disaster and the person who ends up suffering is you.
Final words
Ultimately, all three groups want the same thing — a visually appealing project, a satisfied customer, and a profitable job that beefs up the portfolio. Maintaining proper communication between all three groups is the key to avoiding conflicts and establishing a strong working relationship and ensuring that the homeowners get the project of their dreams.
We at SILA are one of the leading Turnkey projects contractors in Mumbai that deal in Interior Design and Build Services and also Office design and build.
SILA along with its Facility Management services, Turnkey Interior Contracting, and Project Management
