Step 1: Questions Clients Frequently Ask
What issues and considerations define a project?Site (whether raw land or existing structure) • Program • Budget • The client's own commitments and expectations
Who makes up the project team?
Led by the architect, the team may include the landscape architect, the builder, structural and mechanical engineers, and of course, the client.
How do you set fees?
Projects start with a Feasibility Study for a fixed fee - cycles of preliminary design and pricing, aimed at establishing the project scope. Fees for developing the project and seeing it built are based on this scope.
Is the Scope of your Services always the same?
We are deeply committed to following our projects from initial explorations of feasibility through construction and initial occupancy. We do not accept projects which we cannot follow through construction.
Step 2: What Clients Ask About Design Work
What are the steps in the design process?Documentation of the site and/or existing structure and the regulatory context • Articulation of what the client wants • Rough sketches/models of preliminary design solution • Project budget check • Program/Design refinement • Construction documents • Advise on hiring the Contractor, type of contract • Project budget check • Construction coordination
How do you communicate with clients during the process?
We work best through scheduled face-to-face meetings, documenting ideas through 2D and 3D drawings, various models, and written notes.
What do you expect clients to provide?
Solid information; honest and timely feedback.
What is EBA's design philosophy?
To give simple and expressive form to client requirements, and integrate this with the natural characteristics of the landscape or the grammar of an existing house and site.
Step 3: What Clients Ask About Building
Why do clients need you during construction, anyway?Architects are advocates for their clients. While contractors are expert at scheduling, buying and construction, they often do not excel at design, space planning or engineering. Working together, architect and contractor can create a productive partnership and deliver a successful project for the client.
How are costs estimated?
By one or more contractors, on a bid or negotiated basis, at several steps in the design process.
How is the contractor selected?
Contractors come to notice through their past work. Typically both the client and architect meet with candidates and visit their finished projects. Preliminary bids by several contractors are helpful in revealing more about how they see the job and what they would be like to work with.
How do you deal with construction?
Establish a realistic schedule, and if living on site, include temporary facilities for things the client can't live without.