Building or renovating a home is an exciting but daunting endeavor filled with numerous decisions, the first of which is “who will design the house?” When you ask friends and family for advice, everyone has a different opinion. Some say to hire a separate architect and builder, while others recommend picking plans online, and others suggest having the builder design it for you. In your research, you also start seeing terms like “design-bid-build” and “design-build,” but you’re not sure what those terms mean, or, more importantly, what they mean for your home.
“Design-bid-build” refers to the approach in which you contract your architect and builder separately. This is how people have approached custom homes for decades: You find an architect first, and once they have designed a home to your specifications, you shop the plans around for builders to bid on. You have one contract with the architect and another contract with the builder, acting as the touchstone between them for the entire project.
“Design-build” combines the two steps into one. You engage with one company that handles the whole project from concept to reality. The builder and the architect work together as a team through each step of the design and building process to ensure that everything is what the client wants and can afford from the very beginning. A few hundred years ago design-build was how most homes were built; owners hired a “master builder” who oversaw all aspects of design and construction.
Over time, architects and builders separated into different professions. I have worked on houses under both systems, and each approach has advantages and challenges. As an architect working a design-bid-build project, I find it incredibly frustrating for designs to be changed because a meticulous builder was underbid by a careless one, and heartbreaking for a project to never see life at all.
While not inherent to the process, the fact that professionals intentionally form a team should translate to a mutually respectful relationship in which they can trust each other’s work. In addition to a better work environment for everyone, this leads to a better product and a lower cost for the client because the designer and builder rely on each other’s expertise. When evaluating potential design build firms, carefully check that the builder and architects respect each other’s expertise as the opposite can be a challenge with the design-build process. Ultimately, I’m an architect and I love what I do. It genuinely brings me joy to see my clients delighting in the home I designed for them. There’s nothing more rewarding than helping homeowners create a home that works for them.
Architectural illustrations by William Cawood
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