Most first meetings cover portfolio and price. Those matter, and they are also the two things every firm has prepared an answer for.
These questions go at the process, how the plan gets made, who decides what, and what you are holding at the end. Ask them of everyone you meet, including us.
About how the design gets made
1. Where does the design start, with my site, my plan, or with me? There is no single right answer, but you will learn a great deal from which one comes first.
2. How do you find out how I actually live? Listen for something structured. A conversation about bedroom count and square footage is a different instrument from a process that asks what a Sunday looks like, where you go when the house is full, and what you do at seven in the morning.
3. What happens if my taste and the layout disagree? The answer you want is that they are not in competition. Style is applied to a plan that fit has already shaped, and any style you love can be laid out around the way you live.
4. How do you use the site in the design? Sun path, slope, access, prevailing weather, where the view opens, where the neighbors are. Ask when in the process this enters.
5. What do you do differently for a home someone will live in for twenty years?
About scope and deliverables
6. What exactly do I own at the end of each stage? Ask for the deliverable by name. At Conscious Home Design, predesign produces a HomePrint™, a written program describing how the home has to serve you, and a concept floor plan with layout, relative room sizes and adjacencies. It is not a construction document, and that distinction is worth confirming with anyone.
7. Is the drawing set permit-level or bid-level? These are different documents. A bid-level set carries assemblies, schedules, details and specifications.
8. Will the set let three to five builders price the same thing?
9. What is not included? Survey, engineering, energy modeling, interior design, landscape, ask which sit inside the fee and which you will contract separately.
About fees
10. Is your fee a percentage of construction cost or a fixed fee? Both are normal. A percentage moves with your budget; a fixed fee does not. Across the profession, total architectural fees run 5 to 15 percent of project cost. Conscious Home Design works in the 8 to 12 percent band and quotes it as a tiered fixed fee, a fixed price you can plan on.
11. What triggers an additional fee? Ask this plainly, and ask for the answer in writing.
12. Can I engage one stage at a time?
13. What does the first stage cost on its own? Ours: a Lifestyle Design Brief™ or Feasibility Study at $3,500; full custom architecture from $25,000.
About time and people
14. How long is each stage? A reasonable shape: predesign two to six weeks, design four to eight weeks, construction documents six weeks to ninety days.
15. How much of my time will this take, and when?
16. Who will I actually be working with?
17. When do builders enter the process? Later involvement is the conventional pattern and it works, Talor practiced that way for years. Bringing a builder into contact earlier, even briefly, builds familiarity before bidding and gives them a chance to guide means and methods for cost and speed. Ask how each firm handles it.
18. Are you licensed, and in which states? Architects are licensed state by state, and each state board holds a public record of standing.
What strong answers have in common
They are specific. They name deliverables rather than describing feelings. They say what is not included as readily as what is. And they describe a process the firm follows every time, not one improvised per client.
"Talor is a true thought leader, his design approach is revolutionary. The ideas contained in the Conscious Home Design book will shape and serve humanity for generations." , Autumn Barnett, Psychotherapist, MSW, Lifestyle Design Brief™ client
Frequently asked questions
How many architects should I interview? Two or three is usually enough to calibrate. Beyond that the differences tend to be preference rather than substance.
Is the first meeting free? Ours is, 45 minutes, no charge.
What can I bring to the first meeting? Your land information if you have it, a budget range, a timeline, and a sense of how you spend a normal week. A floor plan sketch is welcome but not needed.
Bring these questions to us. Discuss Your Project, 45 minutes, free.
