Hiring a residential architect is a commitment of time, money, and significant trust. The right questions before signing a contract are not about style or aesthetic preference—they are about process, capacity, and how the studio handles difficulty. A portfolio shows outcomes. Questions reveal method.
Ask to See Process Documentation, Not Just Photos
The most revealing request you can make to a prospective architect is: show me the design process documentation for a completed project, not just the finished photos.
A genuine design process produces artifacts: options matrix drawings showing multiple strategies at the same scale, section studies with annotations about light and material, specification documents explaining why a particular stone or wood was chosen, and construction detail drawings showing how materials meet.
If an architect cannot show you these artifacts, the design was assembled rather than made. Beautiful finished photography can conceal a process with no documented thinking.
In MÉTODO, every project produces a complete design process archive—from the first options matrix through the final construction detail. That documentation is as much a deliverable as the built work.
How Many Projects Are You Currently Working On?
Residential architecture requires sustained attention. A studio that takes 15 projects per year cannot give any single project more than intermittent attention.
We work on four projects per year. That limit is not a marketing claim. It is the condition under which the depth of process described above is possible. Ask your prospective architect how many projects they are currently running, and how much direct principal attention your project will receive versus staff or junior architects.
What Does Your Fee Include, Specifically?
Architect fees cover different scopes in different studios. Before signing, confirm whether the quoted fee includes:
- Schematic design (conceptual strategies and options)
- Design development (resolved plans, sections, elevations)
- Construction documents (full technical documentation for permit and construction)
- Permit coordination and agency submissions
- Construction administration (site visits, RFI response, change order review)
Some studios quote a low fee for the first three phases and charge separately—often at a higher hourly rate—for construction administration. This is not deceptive if disclosed, but it matters for budgeting.
How Do You Handle Design Decisions During Construction?
Construction always produces situations the drawings did not fully anticipate: a structural element that does not align with a material specification, a supplier who cannot deliver the specified stone, a contractor who proposes a substitution.
How an architect handles these moments is more revealing than how they handle the design phase. Ask for a specific example: what changed on a recent project during construction, how was it resolved, and what documentation was produced?
The answer tells you whether the architect maintains design integrity under construction pressure or defers to contractor convenience.
What Is Your Communication Process?
Custom residential design takes 12 to 24 months from first meeting to handover. Communication structure determines whether that time is productive or frustrating.
Ask specifically:
- How often will we meet or communicate formally?
- How are decisions documented after meetings?
- Who is my primary point of contact—the principal or a project manager?
- How are change requests handled and priced?
A studio that cannot answer these questions precisely has no communication structure. You will spend the project's duration chasing updates.
What Are Your Non-Negotiables?
Every serious architect has aspects of their process or their design that are not subject to client override. Understanding what these are before engagement prevents conflict later.
In MÉTODO: we do not proceed to construction documents without a resolved section study. We do not specify materials without a construction detail for each material transition. We do not reduce construction administration scope—because the design does not survive construction without oversight.
These are not rigid. They are the conditions under which quality is achievable.
Próximos pasos
The questions above are a starting point. The right architect for a custom residence is one whose answers demonstrate that they have made decisions and resolved problems before—and can document how.
Conoce el método de MÉTODO to understand how we structure the engagement from first conversation through design and construction.