Exploring the challenges and design approach of living in a small urban home in New Orleans!
Read MoreStudio BKA's guide to interior selections
If you are feeling stuck while trying to select finish and fixture package for your renovation or new construction project, have to no fear. Material and fixture selections can feel overwhelming. "Where do I start?" "I like everything?" These are some things I hear from my clients. This step-by-step guide is a simplified and short version of the process I use to select finishes and fixtures for my clients. It can be applied to residential and commercial projects.
Read MoreAvoiding Trendy Design
Design can be trendy if it isn't honest about what it is. If it's honest, then it is authentic - and authenticity has staying power!
Read MoreQuestions For Your Architect: Should I GC my own house project?
Can you? Yes. Should you? No. Unless you work in the construction industry and are familiar with contracts and coordination, the perceived savings of going it alone tend to evaporate quickly. While an optimistic "do-it-yourself" attitude is admirable, be mindful that these professions exist out of necessity. Take a quick test and see if you can answer 'yes' to the following questions:
1. Do I have 10-20 hours a week to dedicate to meeting with sub-contractors on site?
2. Am I tenacious enough to communicate effectively with professionals when we disagree?
3. Can I make decisions quickly and confidently?
4. Am I a good planner who remains organized from the beginning to the end of a project?
If you scored a 100, welcome to the world of construction management!
If not, a contractor could help you to save money, even though you are paying him/her 15%-20% on top of construction costs, and also consider that the contractor is saving you an immense, lengthy headache. Financially it’s generally a wash, and mentally, you are saving your sanity, which certainly has value as well!
Clients often ask me: "Can I purchase all the materials to help save on overall costs?" The answer is also yes, but let me add my two cents here. You will save on overall costs because your purchase of materials will reduce the percentage that the contractor tacks on material and labor. However, the contractor can purchase material with his/her trade discount. So where you may spend $5,000 on hardwood flooring flying solo, the contractor may pay $4200, and charge ...let's say... $840 in overhead, for a total of $5040, so you have saved yourself $40. Is it worth it to have to measure and estimate square footage and overage, coordinate the delivery, open the boxes to acclimate the wood to the moisture content of the house, and make any other preparations recommended by the manufacturer? I think most people would answer "not really". If you would do these tasks for $40 because you enjoy it, it could be time for a career switch, and again, welcome to the world of construction management!
BUT! There are some materials we do encourage our clients to purchase on their own, but be sure to review the contract with suppliers and opt for warranties. Some of those items are:
- hardware
- decorative light fixtures
- wallpaper
- appliances
- plumbing fixtures
If you need help selecting these, our interiors studio can assist with selections and pricing.For more information about my company, Studio BKA, and the many ways we can help you with your project, please check out: www.studioBKA.com! If you have any questions you'd like to see answered in this series, send me an email at kim@studioBKA.com.
Architecture in 2047
The American Institute of Architects challenged us to think about how the architect's practice will look in 30 years. I was inspired to respond by thinking of recent advances in design technology as the infancy of the every tools of the future architect, and I was inspired a little bit by the upcoming release of Blade Runner 2049.
Architecture’s current trajectory will continue to release projects from the silo of the office desktop, and the silo of the architect's brain. Virtual and enhanced reality will pull meetings from board rooms and into infinite occupiable versions, the project constructed and deconstructed many times before breaking ground. Time between iterations will become faster and faster. Hive communication in the Cloud will allow a continuous exchange to more thoroughly describe ideas. Expertise will be shared more readily, as the design community follows the sharing economy down alternate open-model paths that have already started to reshape the way business is done. Lessons learned will more readily be accessible and applied, like a software patch to the design. The end product will be ever more precisely in line with human intention and expectation for the built environment; and the efficiencies afforded by this fine tuning will in turn reduce the burden on the planet.
The architect’s role must evolve to harness the power of the growing current of data and computational solutions, to shape the project around central tenets and targets, and to communicate the implications of numerous decisions - to be a guiding force and a fixed point in a swarm of forces and numbers. This role as a guiding force will make the architect of the future an indispensable figure for any size construction project.
Economic forces will attempt to drive projects to serve a narrow purpose, however, it will also be the architect’s responsibility to respond with technology and data to show the undeniability of maintaining sustainability, responsibility and urban connectivity for a tenable world that can continue to grow and thrive at the rates we expect. Undermining these forces will be a continuous battle, but one that the architect can be especially equipped to orchestrate a stand against.