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Bauherr_087714 Dec 2016 15:14Hi
We are having a house completely renovated and have chosen an architect for the project.
We are currently in the tender phase, and now our architect is telling us that they are not responsible for the building services (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) and that we need to handle the planning and specifications for these ourselves.
In other words, we now have to sit down with the electrical, heating, and plumbing contractors and work out the bids together.
“Our architects never handle building services,” said our architect.
We did not understand this that way at the beginning and did not expect that we would have to manage all of this ourselves. We feel a bit left on our own with a topic we have no expertise in.
Is this always the case?
We are having a house completely renovated and have chosen an architect for the project.
We are currently in the tender phase, and now our architect is telling us that they are not responsible for the building services (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) and that we need to handle the planning and specifications for these ourselves.
In other words, we now have to sit down with the electrical, heating, and plumbing contractors and work out the bids together.
“Our architects never handle building services,” said our architect.
We did not understand this that way at the beginning and did not expect that we would have to manage all of this ourselves. We feel a bit left on our own with a topic we have no expertise in.
Is this always the case?
K
Komposthaufen14 Dec 2016 16:06The statement by your architect is not accurate in this general form. At least the coordination (e.g., tendering and awarding) of the building services (planning) is indeed also done by architects.
In our case, our planner (Dipl.-Ing.) handles it. This means the awarding and tendering of the entire building services. The detailed planning of this is then carried out together with the respective company in consultation with our Dipl.-Ing.. However, I’m not sure if this is standard practice.
The architect handles the areas within their expertise. If building services engineering is not included, which is the case once a certain level of complexity is reached, the planning from phase 5, or at the latest phase 6 (tendering/contract award), is assigned to a specialized consultant. This is usually a building services engineering firm or a specialist contractor, who may also submit a tender and is separately compensated for preparing the bill of quantities (BOQ) for their trade.
Of course, it is not a satisfactory option for you as clients to be left alone with this task, since you lack the technical knowledge to tender and coordinate these works. The architect should have informed you in a timely manner about the correct procedure. It is crucial to know the scope of services for which the architect has been contractually engaged by you. This should be clearly and precisely defined in writing. From this, the architect’s scope of services is derived.
For single-family or two-family houses, it is quite reasonable to expect the architect to keep an overview of the building services, naturally with the corresponding additional services provided by the specialist planners, such as heating load calculation, system design for heating, or the thermal protection verification by the structural engineer.
Of course, it is not a satisfactory option for you as clients to be left alone with this task, since you lack the technical knowledge to tender and coordinate these works. The architect should have informed you in a timely manner about the correct procedure. It is crucial to know the scope of services for which the architect has been contractually engaged by you. This should be clearly and precisely defined in writing. From this, the architect’s scope of services is derived.
For single-family or two-family houses, it is quite reasonable to expect the architect to keep an overview of the building services, naturally with the corresponding additional services provided by the specialist planners, such as heating load calculation, system design for heating, or the thermal protection verification by the structural engineer.
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Bauherr_087715 Dec 2016 09:40Hi,
Thank you for the quick response. I realize we still have a lot to learn, including the role of architects... (-:
What was obvious to our architect wasn’t necessarily clear to us, and we made some incorrect assumptions or didn’t ask the right questions.
I will try to familiarize myself with these topics and manage the process independently with advice from individual companies and maybe a bit from our architect as well.
Otherwise, I will need to obtain additional external consulting (e.g., MEP engineering firm).
Thank you for the quick response. I realize we still have a lot to learn, including the role of architects... (-:
What was obvious to our architect wasn’t necessarily clear to us, and we made some incorrect assumptions or didn’t ask the right questions.
I will try to familiarize myself with these topics and manage the process independently with advice from individual companies and maybe a bit from our architect as well.
Otherwise, I will need to obtain additional external consulting (e.g., MEP engineering firm).
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