Architect Talks / Your Opinion

I consider the longing for just one contact person to be misguided. You need a partner who is responsible for and coordinates the trades and schedules, because that is stressful and hardly manageable for a layperson. This can be the architect or a general contractor (GU) or a suitably organized building construction or carpentry company. During execution, it is actually good to speak directly with the contractors and not play “telephone” via the one contact person. We had good experiences both with this approach and with a property developer. As the client, I still prefer to sit in the driver’s seat, which is more difficult with a GU.

I consider the longing for just one point of contact to be misguided. You need a partner who is responsible for and coordinates the trades and schedules, because that is stressful and hardly feasible for a layperson. This can be the architect, a general contractor, or an appropriately structured building or carpentry company. When it comes to execution, it is actually good to speak directly with those carrying out the work and not play "Chinese whispers" through the single point of contact. We have had good experiences both with this approach and with a property developer. As a client, I quite like sitting in the driver's seat, which is harder to do with a general contractor.

Thank you very much for the great answer. Very helpful. I would like to exchange thoughts with you on this matter sometime. Do you see a possibility here? That would be great.

We built with an architect, but had the extended shell construction carried out by only one (small) company that also builds turnkey houses. No general contractor contract, but through a tender. Paid by m2, tons, hours, etc. One company for the foundation slab up to plaster and screed, roof separately.

This was simple for the architects and a stroke of luck for us because the company was great and required little coordination. For the interior work, we assigned several follow-up trade contracts to partner companies of the "GC."

I would have no problem with multiple contacts, but look at the GC/the companies and the architects. Everything stands or falls with them. Ask yourself what happens in case of problems. We sometimes took the cheapest and sometimes the most expensive offer.

... don't quote the entire post and then also write the answers inside the quote ... see ... If you want to refer to someone, you can simply write to them like I do now or only quote the essential sentence and then make sure your own additions are written outside the quote. Otherwise, a thread quickly becomes hard to read. Thanks