Note: Since I live in Ontario and have spent the past 30+ years here, I may not refer to myself as an "architect" unless I am a registered member of the OAA. Even though I have a Masters degree in Architecture, I may not even use the word "architecture" in reference to my 40+ years of doing what would appear to any cognitive person of doing exactly that. I cannot even imply that my activity as a designer and builder has anything to do with architecture. This is a result of self serving legislation which is not followed everywhere, notably California where I received my diploma. There were few issues with this when lived and worked in B.C. but that likely has changed. I'm sure other provinces are just as anal.
1st Meeting:
If you hired a traditional designer or architect, he would be asking for your shopping list of requirements. Likely, he would be wanting to get away as soon as possible. That is, if he was honest. You may have hired a cracker jack who has been to the property and has a sketch already! This is the 'authoritative' manner.
When my partners and I first started out, we had two or three persons at each meeting. One was the leader of the conversation and the other was the recorder, sometimes with an recording device. Now here is an interesting psychological point. When we later put the machine on replay, sometimes we would swear, we got a different answer to a question. We may even have written the wrong thing or even opposite thing down on paper. This is well known to scientific inquiry (although you would begin to wonder these days on issues like climate change research). You often hear what you want to hear or more precisely you hear what you believe and conversely you believe what you hear or see. It is why we have double and triple blind experiments.
We ask our clients to bring all the pictures and notes they have accumulated to the first meeting. These are powerful images and there is a tendency among people who are designing their home for the first time to “fix” an image as a starting point or a point from which they may radiate. We call it an “image fix”. This is normal. But it may be the wrong thing for them. We will know that when we “test” them later.
Sometimes we offer books with photos that we think the clients might like and ask them to tag the ones that have even a element of design that they like and note what it is that they like about it. It could be something as small as a trim piece or a colour, placement of plants, window or roof shape.
We take notes of everything, summarize and organize them under headings as they appear. These are brought to every meeting. What we are doing is creating a "Verbal House". Most people do not have spacial abilities (lost over generations) but they do know how to verbalize. Women, generally, are poorer in spacial comprehension but superior in verbal skills. Precision in speech is important (as it is in every aspect of life).
Now here is where our process differs almost entirely from tradition. We* deliberately set aside our own design preferences and listen carefully to what our clients are telling us. Often, they don't know themselves and are exploring for the first time. We cannot entirely divorce ourselves from our own preferences and some of it shows in our work. Clients are attracted to us in the first place by that work. And then they find out (to their delight, most of the time) that they will be involved in the design.
Why would we do this? For the simple reason that it is actually the most efficient way to come to a solution that will survive. A few times, we have had clients who had fired their previous designer because what they came up with was so entirely foreign to their sensibilities, and unworkable. Through open discussion we quickly find out what the priorities are and when it comes time to cut something out for whatever reason we know what is important and what was optional. Some designers do this automatically but we have evolved the process to a science.
1st Meeting:
If you hired a traditional designer or architect, he would be asking for your shopping list of requirements. Likely, he would be wanting to get away as soon as possible. That is, if he was honest. You may have hired a cracker jack who has been to the property and has a sketch already! This is the 'authoritative' manner.
When my partners and I first started out, we had two or three persons at each meeting. One was the leader of the conversation and the other was the recorder, sometimes with an recording device. Now here is an interesting psychological point. When we later put the machine on replay, sometimes we would swear, we got a different answer to a question. We may even have written the wrong thing or even opposite thing down on paper. This is well known to scientific inquiry (although you would begin to wonder these days on issues like climate change research). You often hear what you want to hear or more precisely you hear what you believe and conversely you believe what you hear or see. It is why we have double and triple blind experiments.
We ask our clients to bring all the pictures and notes they have accumulated to the first meeting. These are powerful images and there is a tendency among people who are designing their home for the first time to “fix” an image as a starting point or a point from which they may radiate. We call it an “image fix”. This is normal. But it may be the wrong thing for them. We will know that when we “test” them later.
Sometimes we offer books with photos that we think the clients might like and ask them to tag the ones that have even a element of design that they like and note what it is that they like about it. It could be something as small as a trim piece or a colour, placement of plants, window or roof shape.
We take notes of everything, summarize and organize them under headings as they appear. These are brought to every meeting. What we are doing is creating a "Verbal House". Most people do not have spacial abilities (lost over generations) but they do know how to verbalize. Women, generally, are poorer in spacial comprehension but superior in verbal skills. Precision in speech is important (as it is in every aspect of life).
Now here is where our process differs almost entirely from tradition. We* deliberately set aside our own design preferences and listen carefully to what our clients are telling us. Often, they don't know themselves and are exploring for the first time. We cannot entirely divorce ourselves from our own preferences and some of it shows in our work. Clients are attracted to us in the first place by that work. And then they find out (to their delight, most of the time) that they will be involved in the design.
Why would we do this? For the simple reason that it is actually the most efficient way to come to a solution that will survive. A few times, we have had clients who had fired their previous designer because what they came up with was so entirely foreign to their sensibilities, and unworkable. Through open discussion we quickly find out what the priorities are and when it comes time to cut something out for whatever reason we know what is important and what was optional. Some designers do this automatically but we have evolved the process to a science.
