Architects - how to find a good one?

[123yipee]

We would like to do an extension on our home but have stumbled at the first hurdle. We have some ideas with what we would like but would like an architect who will critique what we think we want and make sure that we can get the best possible use of space and layout. I don't just want an architect to draw plans for our ideas.

I have been on the RIBA website but there are so many architects in our area I don't know how to shortlist them.

Any advice on how to pick an architect or recommendations (we are in oxfordshire) would be appreciated.

We asked for personal recommendations from friends/friends of friends and on local Facebook groups. Then we had initial phone conversations with a few, and got three round to discuss/quote.

We had no idea either, we just filtered the ribs list by they do domestic work, then emailed about 10 nearest ones, we interviewed about 6 then it was an easy decision after that. We did choose the most expensive, but as a portion of build cost was a great decision.

I went onto my local planning portal looked at the plans of applications which had been approved and then contacted the people whose plans I liked the look of.
We chose ours based on the thoroughness and clarity of his plans, how local he was and based on our impressions when we met him. He was the middle priced out of the three we met.
He gave us options we hadn't dreamed of and we were granted planning permission yesterday in a conservation area in the green belt.

Thanks for your suggestions, will go on the planning portal that is a really good idea. Then will start by sending emails (never thought of that was just going to ring round and that seemed time consuming). Thanks all.

We have struggled to find any architect bothered to reply to phone calls/emails let alone quote. Thankfully a friend recommended someone, and it happened that the architect has actually extended a very similar property in a similar way, so hopefully will work out well, just accepted his quote.