Maturity, security, experience, and qualifications are the common grounds for achieving harmony between an architect and a custom homebuilder. When it works, it is a productive collaboration. When it doesn’t work, it can be a distracting source of complications for the client. As an experienced design firm that is also a custom homebuilder, we prevent those complications by fully appreciating both sides of the homebuilding equation.
Supplementary Roles
Folks who remember geometry class will recall that two supplementary angles total 180 degrees, which is a straight line. Ideally, that is the outcome of successful collaboration between an architect and a custom homebuilder. Their two roles complete a task.
Ideally, the scope of each side’s contribution goes something like this: The architect is responsible for helping the client envision the home and for turning that vision into a set of plans. Blueprints are the shorthand for this outcome and the most visible product of the work, and yet the understanding of the client’s goals, desires, tastes, and preferences that goes behind those blueprints is the most remarkable aspect of the process.
Less visible, and yet just as remarkable, is the architect’s knowledge of design. And in this case, by design, we mean more than technique; we mean a deep understanding of culture, of human needs and desires, and how those needs have been expressed in relation to the world around us. Some say architecture takes place at the corner of art and commerce. Some say architecture is the form of art that affects people the most constantly and profoundly, and yet which comes closest to remaining unnoticed.
Complementary Talents
The homebuilder translates the architect’s plans into action. This role calls for staying abreast continually with developments in materials and technology and building techniques, as well as maintaining productive relationships with accomplished subcontractors. It involves cultivating untapped resources of both kinds – materials and workmanship – all the time.
Nothing stays theoretical for long in the work of a homebuilder. The home either does or does not take shape; either does or does not fulfill the most profound expectations of the client. As a result, two-way communication between the homebuilder and the architect includes, at times, some revisions and even corrections.
When the context around this dialog is genuinely respectful, when it is built on first-hand appreciation of what each professional is bringing to the table, then not only is the outcome more fulfilling to the client, but the process of arriving there is also one of the pleasures of the journey and one of the rewards of the investment.
When Harmony is Built In
When your custom homebuilder is also an accomplished design firm, then the appreciation for both roles – the architect and the builder – is imbedded in the process. From this understanding comes the productive and positive energy that fulfills and exceeds the vision of the client. We take great satisfaction from fostering such a work process and for working with care, so that the meaning of home for our client is achieved and enjoyed to the full.
