A point of conflict can develop within a project if client and architect are not entirely working from the same script. The best possible way to avoid this happening is to first understand the nature of ‘the architect’ and to then build between you and the individual working for you a shared language and frame of reference.

As Josephine Smit, Editor of Building Homes comments: "People are pretty much on their own when dealing with architects. I think that the really bad thing is that no one explains the vocabulary. Why should anyone outside the profession know what 'working drawings' are? I was horrified by a recent Grand Designs programme where the couple were building a house with no knowledge of how the windows would fit."

Also it is in the ambitious architect’s nature to love innovation and have an encyclopaedic knowledge of design and construction techniques across time and across the world. Many will therefore quite happily experiment with locally untried and untested new or ancient materials if they can get someone else and this would be you, the client to pay for them.

Lost in translation >>