Have you ever worked with a design professional—anyone from an interior designer, to a graphic designer, to a web designer—where it seemed like they didn’t have your best interests in mind? Instead, it might have seemed like they were trying to produce a design that would look good in their own portfolio. Maybe they fought you on every idea you mentioned, or they didn’t seem to listen when you brought up how you wanted things to look or function.
When it comes to architectural design, it is important for architects to strive for balance when working with their clients—especially those clients who have strong opinions about the design of their space. At my architecture firm in Long Beach, we absolutely want to take our clients’ ideas to heart, but as design professionals, we also want to protect them from their ideas that might not turn out the way they are envisioning, or those that could cause more problems than they solve. It is also our job to make sure that everything is designed to code, and sometimes there’s just no way to make our clients’ ideas work within the current building code.
A Partnership
Our architecture firm in Long Beach works best with clients who view us as their partners in the design of their home or commercial space. We work together to achieve an outcome that everyone can be proud of. We listen to our clients’ ideas—however “out there” they might be—and our clients trust us to produce a design that meets their needs. We never dismiss an idea out of hand because even if it’s impractical or not feasible, the idea could lead to something great that we may never have considered if we hadn’t listened to our client.
It can be tempting for architects to get a bit defensive during the design process. We are the ones who went to school for architectural design and went through the process to become licensed. We have the design experience under our belts, so we can start to think that our ideas should always be the ones to prevail. But there’s something we don’t have: intimate knowledge of a problem or perspective that is unique to our client. So, while we may be the experts in architectural design, our clients are the experts in how they want to use their space and how they want the finished space to look.
At our architecture firm in Long Beach, our favorite clients are those who aren’t afraid to throw out ideas but who also trust us to make good decisions on their behalf. They allow us to push back when we think something isn’t a good idea or if we have an idea that may be better/more cost-effective/more durable/etc. In our experience, the best results come from a truly collaborative effort between the client and the architect.
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