Architect and Client.

Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 12, 1 August 1921, Page 278

Architect and Client.

By C. Reginald Ford, F.N.Z.I.A.

(Continued from July issue.)

The Client’s Duty. it is now proposed to outline in brief some duties which the client must perform if the project is to be carried to a successful conclusion without friction. It is of hrst importance that the client should realise at the outset that he is entering upon a business relationship. It is very desirable that he should be on a friendly footing with his architect, the more friendly the better, so long as both clearly recognise that as far as the proposed building and everything connected with it is concerned the relationship between them is a business one. ' In engaging the services of an architect the client is about to employ not only an artist to plan a building and to design its various features, but also a business man to advise upon contracts, issue certificates for the payment of sums—perhaps large sums —of money, and to do generally a large amount of

detailed work involving every part of the building and its equipment. the more business-like the architect is with the client tile more is he likely to protect his interests in trie business ahead. " the client should not resent the arcnitect making the matter of fees and services to be performed clear at the first interview, nor should he be surprised if the latter asks tor a definite engagement in writing be tore commencing work. A record should be kept of arrangements and decisions made at every stage. At the outset the client should read carefully the Conditions of Engagement and bcale of Cnarges of the New Zealand fnstitute ot Architects which form the basis ot the architect's employment. He should note in particular whether trie work which he is purposing to undertake involves any of those services tor which the architect is entitled to charge a higher tee than what may be called the basic rate ot G-£ per cent, upon the estimated cost of the work, and aiso what he will be required to pay in the event of the abandonment of the work.

The client should be entirely frank with the architect. " When a client takes a case to his lawyer, or when a doctor is called, in to prescribe tor illness, every possible fact and condition is presented in order that this professional service may be successful in its application to the immediate problem, Similarly, wnen an owner calls upon an architect to undertake the solution of a building problem it is his duty to acquaint the architect with all possible details which may affect the design and

construction. . . . The architect cannot be fairly expected to know the details of every business or menage. He is expected to know how to translate these requirements into building terms."

The client should make full use of the architect's skill and knowledge throughout —he is anxious to render full service it he is permitted to do so. " Designing a building is a process of evolution, file architect's function is to work out for his client the best solution of the problem in hand. To his judgment is entrusted the consideration of a multiplicity of ideas, wishes and needs. The best eventual scheme may be quite different from the one suggested hrst by either owner or architect. The owner should get the benefit of his architect's mature thoughts and careful consideration of various possible solutions of the problem."

One of the first points raised between client and architect is usually, and properly, the question of the cost of the proposed building, and this question, involving as it does the matter of estimate,.is of considerable importance, and is one very frequent cause of complaint against the profession. It is worth considering fairly fully. It should be obvious, but experience shows that it is not, that any estimate based upon preliminary studies can only be a rough approximation. A little thought, however, should make it clear that this must be true. Until the working drawings arc finished and the specifications written the data for a correct estimate are simply not there. Then upon

what basis is an architect's rough estimate made? It is usually by what is known as cubing," which may be explained as follows : Every architect keeps a record of the contract prices for work executed in his office. He calculates the cubic contents of these buildings and then works out how much tney cost per cubic foot and records the data thus secured. From these figures he rinds, for instance, that a certain class of building, erected of certain materials in a certain manner, at a certain place at a certain time, costs, say, 2s. 6d. per cubic foot. A building of another class, built at another place (nearer or further from the source of supplies), at another time, and of different materials in a different manner, will cost a different rate per cubic foot. So when his preliminary study for a certain job is completed, the architect will calculate the cubic contents, decide in what category it must be placed, and make his estimate. It will be realised that there will be many possibilities of miscalculation. The larger the number of buildings upon which the recorded data are obtainable, the more nearly correct the results are likely to be. Here is worth noting a comparative disability (one of many) under which architects in New Zealand labour. In obtaining his data for making cubic estimates he must rely largely, if not solely, upon works carried out in his office. There may be a very limited number— only one— of some particular class. In larger countries this is very different. There are technical journals which, month by month, record cubic cost data, systematically arranged and constantly revised, of all classes of buildings and of many separate trades. No such journal is published in New Zealand. Because of the above fact, or for other reasons, in making preliminary estimates the architect very possibly may not depend upon cubing," but may take out rough quantities of material and labour and estimate the cost of same. Even then, however, the estimate is still subject to the drawback of incomplete data. At this stage many points regarding fittings of all sorts, questions of external and internal finish and other matters, all of which may very materially affect the price, are undecided. Now as to the vexed question of architects' estimates in practice. The writer speaks from knowledge when he says that much*>f the criticism so commonly urged against architects to the effect that if a client desires a house, for instance, to cost £2,000 and tells the architect so, the plans when completed are sure to be of a house to cost from £2,500 to £3,000, is unjust. What takes place only too often is something like this : The owner calls upon an architect and says that he desires plans to be drawn for a seven-roomed house to cost £2,000. If he stopped here, that is, if he said, "£2,000 is the limit of expenditure that I can afford, and I want you to do the best you can to meet my needs within that limit," all would be well, at least in the case in the majority of architects. But, alas ! this is not what usually happens. After stating the cost limit the client, however, goes

on to give a schedule of requirements which must be satisfied. His wife has seen a delightful fireplace at Mrs. X's, a very tine octagonal hall of large size, panelled in oak, at the home of another friend; he himself has noticed Mr. C's separate tiled shower, also the latter's large porch with tiled floor. All of these and many other items muse, with emphasis on the " must," be incorporated in the plans. What is the architect to do? He is confronted with two conflicting requirements —to which is he to conform? Frequently he tries to adopt a midway course. He endeavours to persuade his client to omit as many as possible of the most expensive features and incorporates the others in his design. When the tenders are opened the client —who would not listen to the architect in the first instancerealises that some of the expensive items which he thought he simply could not do without are really beyond his means. Then he wants them struck out of the plans. But this cannot be done without alterations, possibly of an extensive nature, and even, perhaps, involving the entire re-drawing of the plans. If the client—through whose insistance the features were embodied in the plan—were asked to pay for the re-drawing he would be horrified. So the architect proceeds, with as good a grace as may be, to make— to him—expensive alterations in the plans or to re-draw them in order to reduce the cost of the house to the client ana, at the same —and here's the rubreduce his fees below that to which he was entitled for the plans as originally drawn! Sometimes the owner stands firm by his schedule of requirements and takes up the position that, as the plans prepared by the architect cannot be carried out for the sum mentioned (by the owner then he will not proceed with the work nor will he pay the architect his fees. Then the architect is faced with the unpleasant alternative of suffering in silence or instituting legal proceedings. Of course there are occasions when the fault is the architect's when the client was entirely reasonable, prepared to trust and listen to the architect who, through ignorance or carelessness, misled him. The writer submits, however, that the above is a fair illustration of what very frequently happens. The remedy is obvious. The owner should be entirely frank with the architect, tell him what is the absolute outside figure which he can afford, and then listen when he is told how far he can go in the satisfaction of his requirements. The fact mentioned above, however, that until the working drawings and specificationts are complete any estimate can only be approximate, and also that prices change from day to day even while the plans are in process of production, must be kept in mind. It is evident that the owner should keep a reserve in hand of, say, 10 per cent, of the amount which he is prepared to spend. That is, if his outside limit is £2,000 he should tell the architect so and ask for plans to be prepared for a house to cost £I,BOO.

(To be Continued.)