Everything You Need to Know About Architecture Firms
The planning, engineering, and design skills from an architecture firm are what you need if you have plans of beginning any kind of building project. As the name implies, an architecture firm comprises a team of professional architects. Before you decide to hire the professional services of these firms, you have to know what you are getting yourself into. What do these people exactly do for you? What kind of training should they go through? Here is everything you need to know about architecture firms and the architects working for them in terms of their education, training, and duties.
As mentioned above, architecture firms comprise licensed architects. An architect can only be called a licensed professional if they have finished a four-year college course in architecture. Experience is obtained by the person through an internship. Furthermore, they need to pass a licensing exam. When it comes to licensed architects, they have math and engineering aptitude, a well-developed design sense, good communication skills, and a good aesthetic eye. Strong organizational skills are also a plus for these professionals. In this field, there are varying levels of certification and professionalism, namely, designers, project managers, and senior, mid-level, and junior principals, and partners of the firm.
In the process of building, it will be up to the licensed architect to draw the plans. They make sure to oversee the other experts. The licensed architect also makes an ongoing dialog with their customers. Mechanical, electrical, and structural engineers, landscaping experts, and plumbers as other experts of the architecture firm also play roles in drawing portions of the plans. Each specialization should provide a set of drawings each. Whichever county, city, or state the construction takes place, they must be the ones to provide the proper approval. For an approval to be granted, drawings must follow and be to scale of all the regional building regulations and codes. Inspectors will be around at every building process stage to ensure that the structure is truly sound and safe. Once every portion of the plan is approved, the project will push through with the next steps.
When it comes to designing the outside and inside of the structure, having excellent communication with the owner is a must as well as proper time allocation. The drawings will only start to happen when the layout, size, and style of the structure is properly discussed upon and decided. As the process goes along, there will be alterations or refinements of the process. The architecture firm that you hire makes sure to meet all codes such as adherence to zoning regulations, adequate parking, and setbacks from the road. The codes that you must follow will depend a lot on the kind of project that you want to start if you will go for a commercial or residential building. Because commercial buildings will be open to the public, they have stricter codes in comparison to residential buildings.