Do You Make Blueprints?

Asking an architect this is like asking a doctor if they make prescriptions. After being introduced as an architect, this was the first question recently posed to me, and I will admit I was more than a little shocked. “Do you make blueprints?” Without being completely rude, I was not sure how to respond, other than “Well, yes sort of. That’s part of it.” Except even that was a lie.

No one really makes blueprints anymore, the ammonia killed all the nose hairs of the interns forced to ‘run prints’ in unventilated rooms. So what do Architects do? Architects are creative problem solvers first and foremost. Certainly the physical product generated by architects most often comes in the form of printed drawings. However, there is a large field of service prior to and during the production of said “prints” for which they are apparently not known. If there is a spatial or functional problem that needs solving, architects are the ones to call on for a designed solution. By listening to the clients’ needs and concerns architects can generate a multitude of options, and generally lead the client to the best one based on budget, time and/or aesthetic constraints. It is a bit like first making the pieces of a large (or small) puzzle, and then putting it all together. Architects make the picture that the contractor constructs, and can work on projects as small as a closet that needs organizing or an entire city that needs to be planned and all the buildings or houses in between.

Architecture is a service industry, not a manufacturing one. There is an awful lot of arm-chair therapy, educating, coordinating and researching that goes on every day, leaving hopefully only a little fire fighting. The architect should be the first point of contact, therefore generally the engineering trades, structural, mechanical, plumbing and electrical, are contracted under the architect. This means it is the responsibility of the architect to coordinate the designs of these groups. Engineers are not relieved of their job to work to, and within, the given design and coordinate with each other; it just leaves the architect as the design referee.

Does a project really cost more when you include an architect? No, architects are required to design to meet the budget established by the client. Now, they are likely to include the highest quality materials within the budgeted amount, or recommend redirecting funds to the most important aspects, like keeping the water out, first. Part of the creative aspect is to resourcefully use less expensive materials for the highest impact. And if reducing the scale of the project, and planning for future growth is necessary architects should design accordingly. The expense of the architect is in the fee, the savings is in overall efficiency, the return is in added value and hopefully pleasure.