When Do You Surrender Your Design Freedom?

By: Dr. William Hogan-O'Neill

Author, Chartered Architect, and Coach

Published: October 22, 2022

Student Project Design to Architectural Design in Practice 

As architects, we always survive that leap of euphoria within us, that private moment of inner exhilaration and excitement when we finally win the project. After weeks and sometimes months nurturing a potential project, investing time and energy, waking up in the middle of the night with bright design ideas which resolves a particular design issue, only to forget it by the time we get to our workplace the following day. That's why I make notes on the hoof, even at 3.00AM.

Where does the design fun begin for the architect? Does it begin at the point of actually winning the project and does the excitement really continue, because now you must deliver. I think it does; I believe the bliss lives on even after the project is handed over.

The initial phase for all projects begins with of the Feasibility Stage where we explore the site for what it is, examine the surrounding built or natural environment, and understand the attributes and constraints that may be associated with the site.

Delivering an architectural design project may differ when you are student as opposed to professional practice - but the design process is very much the same. What does differ however, are your responsibilities in professional practice as the Lead Design Consultant

We will also undertake our planning research for the site and investigate the planning files within the local planning authority. There is a wealth of information in these files which is always pertinent when making project decisions, and indeed design decisions later, when developing your concept design options and final design solution. Planning research and information gathering is equally important when preparing your planning application as you will need to explain your intended design solution to the Local Planning Authority in your quest for your planning permission.

At all times of course we remain mindful of whom we are designing for, or do we really?  Are we truly free to design for the client user or are we sometimes designing for the client funder who tends to influence many design decisions because they dictate the budget constraints. 

Unlike architectural students who are totally at liberty to interpret their project Brief in a more liberalised fashion, architects in practice do not always enjoy the same level of design freedom. It’s the real world after all!

Many architects working on projects that are commissioned by a single client user may bestow many if not all design decisions to their architect with absolute confidence, not necessarily with the same degree of freedom as when you were a student, but is nonetheless a dream project.

Having a direct one-to-one relationship with individual clients is always a bonus which I have enjoyed in architectural practice and made many friends as a result.

The Larger Project

When you win a large significant project very often the situation is different. Larger projects usually come with an army of client advisors, capital programme managers, marketing experts and the like. Client support agencies/advisors will seek to manipulate and encircle the direction of travel for the project and its budget with a divine passion, - future career prospects are at stake as they would see it.

The architect as Lead Design Consultant will manage the design team meetings. The structural and building services engineer will develop their designs based on the architect’s initial design concept and all three specialist designers will develop their concepts design in parallel. Other additional specialist designers will be introduced to the design development process as and when required.

In project circumstances such as these, the notion of ‘architecture’ might appear to them as a blurred vision, a bolt-on extra, but only if the project design and budget can afford it.

For a new architect in practice and having to deal with different personalities with objectives very different to yours, might seem you are having a bad day when dealing with philistines, as architectural thinking, culture, and art in an architectural sense, will not form part of their remit in terms of delivering an architectural design solution for the client.

From time to time, and too often in my opinion, you will encounter situations where client advisers will tend to influence the architectural design process. Design suggestions and preferences expressed are I am sure well intentioned, and some might provide a measure of added value, if carefully managed, but not necessarily to the betterment of overall architectural design solution originally envisaged by you.

I have found these well-intentioned design alternatives are sometimes a means to score ‘brownie points’ in the eyes of the client and offered in isolation of understanding the total architectural design process. Let me cite and example. My practice was asked to entertain an alternative lift company – ‘because they are cheaper’. When investigated, the result of the exercise demonstrated the alternative lift company did not provide a Like for Like alternative lift at all, and that is why it was cheaper.

I soon realised in practice that with future suggestions of this nature I insisted on the person promoting the alternative company to prove to me their product alternative was indeed a like-for-like alternative, and that it fully adhered to the requirement of the specification. I save a great deal of my time with this approach as it excluded me from having to disprove the suggested alternative as being a viable option.

As the Lead Design Consultant your professional indemnity is always on the line as well when it comes to entertaining something other than what you have already researched and specified. All design decisions made, therefore, should be made where you as the architect and Lead Design Consultant maintain a proper focus on your Professional Indemnity Insurance.

I was once told by the Client Representative/ Employers Agent, to make a change to the specification for pricing reasons, which in the opinion of my project design team was an inferior design solution. The matter was resolved by my practice writing to the client adviser seeking confirmation of their instruction for us to alter the design. Furthermore, and to protect my client’s best interests as my practice viewed it, we insisted the Client Advisor provide us with a copy of their Professional Indemnity Insurance to cover all the implications associated with their proposed design change. I never questioned why their design change instruction was never received!

Architects Remit

So, as an architect in practice, it is worth having clarity as to who is leading on the development project and who is leading on the project design. Certainly, for smaller projects the architect can take on several roles regarding designing and delivering a project for the client. For larger more complex projects the client is usually well verse in development matters and will, as a matter of course, employ project managers and other specialist advisors associated with the development project of which the architect as the Lead Design Consultant is one.

As the architect your best position will be to recognise your role as being the Lead Design Consultant and understand what it entails. This will clearly define your remit which has a focus generally on designing and coordinating all aspects associated with the architectural design, planning approvals, detail building design, assisting the construction delivery process etc. Whilst your role as the Lead Design Consultant will naturally involve interaction and collaboration as a member of the project team, there is always good reason to remain aloof from the development politics and all the shenanigans that entails.

For you to remain conversant with the progress of the project you will be kept informed on matters generally but especially on aspects which could affect or impact the design process. The architect will be updated on project events and happening at Project Coordination Meetings. This is where you as Lead Design Consultant contribute your professional expertise to the development project as a member of the project team.

For the most part and after planning permission has been obtained - Works Stages 2 and 3, your input as Lead Design Consultant will be to develop the Technical Design for the building Work Stage 4 and external works together with obtaining Building Control Approval. Such matter will be discussed at your Design Coordination Meetings where you as the architect will chair and take the minutes. 

Designing the detail of the building has a unique level of design expertise. It Demonstrates the manner in which the buildings elements and materials are placed and fixed together thereby creating a total assemblage

All design professionals will attend your design meetings and depending upon the nature of the intended building contract or how advanced the detail design process is, the contractor may also attend these meetings. If you intend to go out to Competitive Tender for your project the contractor will not attend.

There will be a myriad of other statutory approvals that may be required and whilst some may come under the remit of building services, structural engineering, or other specialist design items, you as the Lead Design Consultant will be responsible for coordinating all design matters.

In all matters relating to design, it is the architect’s responsibility to make sure all approvals have been obtained and are in place prior to either commencement or completion of the work on-site or before Practical Completion (handover).

Architectural Design Beyond the Concept

Every architect in practice must take note of the planning conditions attached to a planning permission. Depending at which point you take on the project, I would strongly recommend you scrutinise the nature and extent of planning conditions before to you even commence with the design process. Given the nature of Planning Conditions there can be cost implications attached to having them discharged and sometime these can be significant cost. (Soil Contamination, Underground River come to mind) It is vital your client is informed of any planning conditions attached to a planning permission. That is a number one consideration when a client invites me to assess a site which has a planning permission. Planning conditions are best discharged at the earliest time during the design process but, some planning conditions of course cannot be discharge until later in the project.

Architects in practice have many things to manage as part of the design process. Some architects will elect to focus on the architectural design only. That is, concentrate on the initial concept development, develop the concept further for the purpose of achieving a planning permission and stop there, that is, not take the project any further.

This might be a career choice by the architect or, it may be the commissioned was issued by the client (but not to a qualified architect) to achieve a planning permission for the site because the client intended to sell on the development. With design commissions of this nature there is less urgency perhaps to dwell on any planning condition implications or the future construction design process, unless you are sure of being Novated to the party about to purchase the site, which although often promised does not always happen.

I have found however, architects who can take the project all the way through to completion on-site will have a different mindset at the time of development the concept design and the final design solution for planning permission purposes.

The tendency is to produce an architectural design that has been thought through and well considered in terms of how the technical design is developed for construction purposes will be managed. In other words, the concept is well developed where aspects of Work Stage 4 Technical Design have been satisfied. A well-developed concept will avoid the necessity of having to return to the local planning authority with a series of Non-Material Amendments which of course can be managed within the scope of existing planning permission. 

Inheriting a project with an existing planning permission where a design is not sensible and is so expensive to construct may necessitate major design changes requiring further local planning authority involvement may prove problematic for your client. The Local Planning Authority may deem the nature and extent of your proposed revisions to be a Material Amendment, which in effect will mean a fresh planning application will have to be prepared, and your client may not have allowed for those costs and risks at the time of deciding to purchase. Your client will not be amused!

For architects designing the project from beginning to end, that is, from initial concept development to engaging the technical design process is the ultimate in architectural design. Whilst there might be a notion among some practitioners the fun wanes after the concept design is completed, I believe there is further design excitement to be had for architects when it comes to managing the Technical Design process.

Technical design can be seen as architectural design at another level and for those who enjoy, and even love this level of design expertise, the design freedom and self-expression can equate to the design freedom experienced as an architectural student dealing with concepts.

Architectural detail design is exactly that and embraces the art of architectural design to a level of refinement where those who recognise it will appreciate a further aspect of design freedom.

Enjoy being an architectural student when it comes to design freedom and enjoy being an architect in practice because you don’t have to surrender your design freedom.