Wishlist for the architect

I talk with friends and colleagues and try to get recommendations for individual trades. Currently, these are the architects whom I ask for recommendations and with whom I have had and will have initial discussions. I also have an architect and a structural engineer in the family, but not locally. I will involve them as "external consultants." The very relaxed option of letting the general contractor do everything is not something I can afford. And for the very stressful option of doing a lot myself while having a moving date looming over me, I lack the time and nerves. So somewhere in between.

No, I actually mean to contract out all trades myself and take on the majority myself. Only THEN are 1300-1400€/m2 realistic. So, doing the shell construction myself, the roof myself, window installation myself, insulation myself, windows/doors myself, rough-in electrical and plumbing myself, of course having the screed and plastering done, but so on.

No, I actually mean to award all trades myself and do most of the work myself. Only THEN are 1300-1400€/m2 realistic. So shell construction myself, roof myself, window installation myself, insulation myself, windows/doors myself, electrical and sanitary rough-in myself, screed and plaster of course done by others, but etc..

(Self-)individual contracting requires experience, or you have to be more lucky than sensible to make sure it doesn't backfire. And hardly anything do DIYers overestimate more than the finesse of delivering self-performed work just in time to not disrupt their construction schedule. In terms of square meter price limbo, @hegi___ is the most ambitious pioneer here, but even he manages his target mark only with compromises as far as I remember. If I build my house for 1200 euros per square meter in cash plus 600 euros in my own self-performed work plus 800 euros in help from buddies (for which they expect my return favor on their home construction), then that sums up to 2600 euros – and accordingly a naive calculation to say I "managed it for less than half the price."

At the moment I would like to deliver something reasonably meaningful to the architect.

That would be a room program with special requirements, e.g. accessibility and/or brightness alongside common parameters like size.

And I expect that this list will also not be fully implemented, but that maybe some things will be added, others omitted. Well, that’s exactly why I’m posting this here in the forum.

No, it doesn’t work like that.

We are also currently planning our new house with an architect and have just finished the preliminary planning conversation with her. Our contents looked quite different...

That’s how it can work, for example.

Exterior dimensions (WxD) approx. 19.2 x 9 m, depth still open (7 – 11 m); 15° gable roof

Gable sides without windows (due to outbuildings)

Buildings should visually fit into the picture of an existing farmyard (four-sided farm, primarily brick, partly half-timbered)

Main entrance courtyard side (northeast),

These are, for example, parameters that the architect works out for you according to the development plan, not according to your specifications.

Cost framework: total €300,000 – 350,000 (excluding land, ancillary costs, equipment)

135sqm x 2500 equals €330,000… less if a lot of self-construction is done.

Barrier-free living for 2 people

That is a parameter that drives costs up by increasing the floor area.

But I’m not there yet. You already noticed this in earlier posts. So far, I don’t know what I’m allowed (building authority, etc.), nor what I can (pay), nor exactly what I want. So phase 0.

Bad prerequisites!

but his brain.

I am increasingly doubting that, as is known.

I still have a few wishes for the "Wunschliste":
- an architect who adheres to agreed-upon timelines
- an architect who tries to implement my wishes
- an architect who tries to plan the house budget-oriented
- an architect who, based on his initial design proposals, is willing to make changes without immediately demanding more money, since he only owes a "genehmigungsfähigen" draft...

Have fun!
GD

If you are talking about a [Resthof] here. But hopefully in the indoor area, right?

Oh, Gerddieter, your personal trauma at every mention of the trigger word "architect" is probably as certain as the "amen" in church ...

an architect who adheres to agreed timelines

Then these agreements must be clearly written down in the architect contract – including the sanctions for non- or poor performance.

- an architect who tries to plan the house budget-oriented

The effort alone is not enough; success must be included in the architect contract. Budget adherence cannot be a "delicacy" but is an "essential". The design must also be "approvable" in the eyes of the bank. A theoretically permitted fanciful fantasy would be pure artistic patronage, which cannot be demanded from an average building client.

an architect who tries to implement my wishes
[...] an architect who, based on his first design proposals, is willing to make changes without immediately asking for more money again, since he only owes a "permittable" design...

Regarding the first point, one specifies in the architect contract that the client has the right to an individual design, and the architect cannot fulfill his "duty" with a generic standard design.
Regarding the second point, you have to admit that, on the other hand, the architect must also be protected from the attitude of some clients who expect him to deliver new creations until exhaustion until the clients like them. You can read several stories right here in this forum where princesses on the pea á la can drive a general contractor’s draftsman to the brink of madness, making them walk seven and a half laps up and down stairs, move downpipes, no better the interior walls, no better yet the stairs, no better yet the downpipe, and now the windows again are not all symmetrical, and so on. You have to put a stop to that as well. From my point of view, the client needs to be clear whether two or three preliminary designs are to be written into the architect contract. But one of them must be chosen anyway, and only that one will be further developed. "Plopp! - that means stop!", that was already the case with Michael Schanze. If none of the three preliminary designs is liked, one simply has to change the architect – which is why I always recommend concluding the architect contract only via module A (as you can read at Baulotse-Hoffmann) and only then awarding further commissions.