Meeting an architect - what do I need to ask.

[ScoutandAtticus]

We are buying a house and want a downstairs extension and loft conversion done. I am meeting an architect next week to discuss. Is there anything I need to think about or ask?

We are not scary or superior or intimidating. We are very nice, warm, helpful and obliging people.

Well... I am. :)

Your architect will make every effort to understand your needs, your aspirations and (I'm sorry to say) your limitations in terms of finance, time and ability to absorb stress.

I always offer a free hour (sometimes more if the coffee / wine / cake is particularly good) to chat with a potential client, explore their ideas, aspirations, needs and funds so I can (as far as I am able) truly understand what they need and what I can provide within the constraints.

Oh, and be sure you are talking to an ARCHITECT, not an architectural technician, architectural technologist, architectural designer, architectural consultant etc, etc and bloody etc!

I have absolutely no issues with the first two, perfectly capable of designing and managing a project for you but so many people use the term Architect without understanding that the title protected by law and actually illegal for someone to call themselves an Architect unless they are Registered.

Thank you. I have noticed a builder also describes himself as an architectural technician which I was a bi suspicious about. It's not clear to me what this means. I am definitely speaking to an architect but given we are clear about what we want I will also speak to an architectural technician. I would like to know what I would get from an architect rather than a technician gut I guess I won't know that until I see them.

I meant the builder called himself an architectural designer.

Make sure you know what you want, as I had an architect who came round for an initial discussion. We wanted an upstairs dorma at the back of the house which would have resulted in turning the two upstairs bedooms into three bedrooms and a bathroom. This particular architect said I'd be better building an master suite extension on the ground floor off the kitchen No, said I, I want three bedrooms upstairs so we are near the kids rooms if they need us in the night, and we all have access to a bathroom. He still insisted we needed a master suite off the kitchen, which would have meant we'd need intercoms to the kids rooms, and would have to walk through the entire length of the house to get to them...we literally couldn't have been farther away if we'd tried. And the kids would have had to have come downstairs for the bathroom, plus we'd have lost a chunk of garden unnecessarily. He just didn't get what we needed at all.