The role of an architects
Good building design can drastically improve the quality of a person’s life and their mental health. An architect can help transform how a person lives, no matter how large or small the budget; through designing quality spaces, with great consideration of materials, cleverly located natural light sources and spatial relationships that respond to the daily needs of the people inhabiting the space.
The architect takes on a large amount of roles from investigating the legality of building work, negotiating building costs during the tender process, consulting and collaborating with a huge number of professionals and services on the client’s behalf, providing cost information, managing the building contract and managing the build process from start to completion.
The table below lists some of the many roles that the architect undertakes:
What do architects do?
The Role of the Architect
| Myth | Reality |
|---|---|
| Draws a building design for a builder to construct | The architect checks any title and any easements or land covenants that may restrict what can be built. |
| The architect analyses how the client occupies their living space and develops a design that responds to their spatial requirements and physical needs to improve their quality of living. | |
| The architect ensures that the design conforms to local planning regulations and restrictions including any policies that preserve the historic or environmental characteristics of the local area. | |
| The architect ensures that the building design is compliant with the building regulations and health and safety standards. | |
| The architect creates visual representations of the design, through sketches, virtual models, 3D visualisation tools to allow the client to see and feel what the space will be like. | |
| The architect leads and collaborates with a team of professionals including engineers, surveyors, designers, builders, planners, local council, financial professionals, manufacturers and trades people. | |
| The architect produces coherent design and construction information including drawings, schedules and specifications that will enable the build cost to be accurately calculated and the building to be constructed. | |
| The architect undertakes project management during the construction stage, including organising site visits and meetings, resolving site problems and calculating how much the client should be paying the builder each week. |
How Cherry Architects Work
At Cherry Architects, we work closely with our clients at the start of the project to understand as much as we can about who they are, how they live and what motivates them. By getting to know each other, we are able to design spaces that best respond to their spatial needs.
Undertaking a construction project can be complex, particularly if you have not undertaken one before. At Cherry Architects, we aim to simplify the process as much as possible and guide our clients through all aspects of the design journey; always on hand to answer any questions that they may have throughout the process.
With many years of experience in the locations that we serve, we have good links to a vast network of local engineers, surveyors and builders and can make recommendations to ensure that our clients are always looked after.
Through using 3D visualisation and virtual reality technology, Cherry Architects are able to effectively communicate design ideas with our clients, who may be used to seeing design only on 2D plans or who may have never worked on a house extension before.