What are the clients responsibilities during the pre-design phase?
The client should provide as much information to the architect as he or she can. This should include site information in the form of an Environmental Site Delineation; the project program, which is a statement describing what the design should accomplish; and the project budget. If this minimum information is not supplied to the architect, then he or she will have to research it or hire consultants to provide it–either of which will add to the project cost. If the work will involve an existing building, turning the original construction documents over to the architect can be an invaluable source of information regarding not only the measurable geometry of the building, but also what exists behind the finished surfaces. Many of our projects have dealt with existing buildings for which there were no extant drawings; we had to carefully survey the buildings and draw them, often making educated guesses as to their hidden construction details, before any meaningful design could even begin.
