There are three fatal mistakes that private clients tend to make when selecting an architect to help make their dream home reality.
The first mistake is to select unchallenging architects.
By this we mean, architects who would take your ideas and translate them into a design for your home, without attempting to enrich them. While this may sound acceptable, it is a waste of an opportunity for you, as well as a waste of your resources.
At AKKA, we believe it is our responsibility to help you create, enrich and sharpen your vision before we rush into creating the design that will embody it.
Creating a home is a very personal project and we aim to help you not only enrich your ideas but indeed, we will offer you new ideas to present you with a range so that when you select the final vision, it is not because it is the only thing you may have had in mind, but it is because you have explored enough direction to know this is your desired one.
At AKKA, we believe that our responsibility goes beyond design. Creating the briefing for the project, understanding what the question is, and what it can be is as important as answering the question with a design.
The second is that they select architects who focus only on what the space is and its physical attributes, rather than what the space can do and create beyond itself.
This is a very understandable mistake since most architects do not concern themselves with the space beyond form, square meters and functions. Architects are trained to deal with form, and so, they focus, design and deliver the form of a space, what it looks like, its sizes, proportions and functions. While this is all needed, it is a fatal mistake to only consider space in its physical aspects.
At AKKA, we believe that your space – specially a home – can, and should help you have better interactions, better moments and live a better life. In addition to creating the most beautiful and functional space in terms of physical attributes, we aim to create a space that first, embodies your vision, values and lifestyle as a couple, and second, a space that proactively helps you live those values, live the lifestyle you desire and reach your vision of your life. We aim for a space that not only houses your activities, but indeed supports them, enriches them, triggers better interactions between your family members, with your friends and visitors, now and as your lifestyle evolves.
At AKKA, we believe that it is extremely important to start from you, your vision and the ideas you already have about your personal life as well as your professional life (since you work from home as we understood). It is essential that we understand (and if needed help you define) the lifestyles you aim to create in this home. It is extremely important for us to understand you and your guests’ needs and desires. It is only after that, that we can create a space that truly serves you, and not only makes your life easier, but indeed makes it better.
Architecture means more than qualification.
The third is that they select an architect who will end their scope right at the end of construction.
Again, this is a very understandable mistake since no other architects – as far as we know – offer what at AKKA, we call an adapting phase.
Even though our entire process is designed as a participatory process based on you and your insights, our adapting phase allows for additional final refinements and fine-tuning after the project has become reality. We focus here of the small details that make all the difference.
