I've practised as an Architect for over twenty years now. In that time I've worked for five very different organisations. Each one has had a different focus, and its own approach to delivering architectural services. What has been common to each of them has been the need to drive efficiency and effectiveness to ensure that the service delivered meets the clients expectations, and that the cost of that service to the client also meets their expectations. The challenge to deliver quality services for a reasonable price is an exceptionally difficult one for many architects, and perhaps nowhere more than in the Channel Islands.
"In Guernsey, there is no protection to the title 'Architect'."
This is unique in western Europe, and means that clients engaging architectural services rely on the honesty of the individuals and companies offering those services to declare their level of qualification and experience. Being an 'Architect' in Guernsey requires no qualification, no experience, no skill and no insurance. As a result, the market place is not a level playing field. Un- or under-qualified individuals and firms offer a more cost effective service with little to no discernible difference to the lay-person client. Most qualified architects in the island struggle to provide a competitive service, and so rely on securing high-quality commissions from customers willing to pay the premium fees associated with the benchmark of high quality design.
The same cost differential exists at every stage of the project, and to seek to ensure the final product properly reflects the high quality of the architect's design, firms normally like to be involved at the heart of the project team through the whole project process, in concept design, technical design, production of information, tendering and construction. This all comes at a price to the client. The decision to engage the fully qualified architect is a costly one; after all,
"designing buildings is hardly rocket science, right?"
I've recognised that a high proportion of clients are very happy to pay for great ideas; for the intellectual creativity the architect brings to the table in the early stages of a project. They're often happy to invest in solutions to complex planning issues or to difficult sites, and the Channel Islands certainly have plenty of both!
It's when it comes to the technical compliance and the building works that clients are less enamoured with maintaining the architect's appointment on a full service basis. Setting up Corbeau has partly been about acknowledging that there are perfectly competent and qualified architectural technologists and technicians in the island, and that they are better positioned to deliver technical details and construction information in a cost effective way than a qualified architect will, especially one who has as much experience as me. However, engaging with technologists and builders can sometimes lead to unwanted changes to the design concept, so it makes sense to keep me involved with a project through to completion, but at arms length, as a clients representative, a critical friend, to keep a weather-eye on the project as it develops through the build.
That's why this is a Building Concepts Consultancy. I want clients to invest their funds in the most appropriate way; to employ me as a specialist to provide the best possible solution to the problem, or the best response to the situation, and then engage an appropriately qualified technician or builder to deliver the project, knowing that they can call on me to sense-check the process further down the line.
"Client satisfaction is part of what drives me, and I believe that Corbeau offers a new means of achieving just that."
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