Beyond the Blueprint: How Collaboration with Your Architect Produces Beautiful Results

Photo: Ron Ruscio Photography

When building or renovating a home, your architect isn’t just a designer—they’re your creative partner. A strong collaboration ensures your vision is realized while balancing aesthetics, functionality, and budget. Here’s how to work together effectively for the best results.

Begin with the end in mind

Photo: Mark Woolcott Photography

Beginning with the end in mind is one of the best ways a homeowner can bolster the success of  their custom home project. As Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “First, a good site: pick one that has features making for character. Then build your house so that you may still look from where you stood upon all that charmed you and lose nothing of what you saw before the house was built but see more.”

When collaborating with an architect to design your dream home, communicate what you love most about the site. This will help them craft a design that preserves and enhances its best features. A skilled architect is trained to factor in key logistics, such as maximizing views and sunlight while ensuring privacy.

Bring your vision to the table

Photo: Jerry Walters Photography

Determining and communicating the style you want for your home will allow your architect to begin a preliminary design that will fit your unique site. Creating a Pinterest board, Houzz design folder, or even bringing images torn out of a magazine will go a long way in describing the architectural style and your vision for your home. Adding notes about what you specifically like about the images you bring will further aid your architect in the early design phase.

Develop your wish list

Photo: Tim Gormlay Photography

Likewise, making a list of what you love and hate about your current home will help tremendously in molding the design to fit how you live. This can be as simple as the fact that you dislike the lack of prep space in your kitchen, how you wish you had a better view from certain rooms, or how you love the amount of light your bathroom gets in the morning. Each piece of information you share paints a picture of your lifestyle and how your future home can complement and improve how you live in your home.

Figure out a realistic budget

Photo: Tim Gormlay Photography

Now that you have your vision of your dream home in mind, it is extremely important to have an honest budget in mind. Balance this with where your priorities lie. If you love throwing dinner parties but rarely have guests spend the night, your kitchen and living areas will take higher priority than bedrooms. If you work from home, a dedicated office will be non-negotiable. Having clear priorities can make an enormous difference when it comes to managing your budget.  When your architect understands your priorities, they can help you get the most value from your budget while minimizing costs.

Choosing the right architect and working collaboratively is the best way to achieve the results you’re looking for. And if you do not have all (or any) of the above figured out before your first meeting with your architect, don’t worry. A skilled, experienced architect will ask the right questions and help you to create a design that best fits your needs and your lifestyle.

Steve Sall is a Project Designer and Nick Moskwa is a Project Manager at TKP Architects, an award-winning architecture firm based in Golden, Colorado. View TKP’s profile or contact TKP Architects at 303.278.8840.

Content for this article provided by TKP Architects.