Architect or architect technician

[mumdone]

We’ve always had plans done through our builders but this time we want to do them independently.
Please can someone explain the difference between these two?
We have an idea of what we want and what other houses have done down the road. Happy to manage the project, have done the last two.
Thanks

We used a Chartered Building Surveyor for our plans

Architect vs technician is like the difference between a McDonald's chef and a fine restaurant chef. Both will produce a safe and correct result but the extra money goes on the things you had no idea about, they work out what you really need and give you that instead of what you ask for.
To be concrete we knew what we wanted, but we wanted the outside to look like the house was built like that, not a box dropped in from Mars.
Anyway the architect asked us a load of questions and spent ages measuring the house and garden, and then popped round with proposals nothing like what we asked for. Including moving one internal structural brick wall over literally a foot, and hardly increasing the square meters at all. I think it worked out over 4k per square metre without the kitchen.
We thought they were mad but we did go ahead with most of it and only afterwards we realised they knew way better than us.
All told they charged about 8% of the project cost which is a lot of pounds but we are glad the other 92% of budget was well spent in the end.
Hope that helps!
Ps architectural technician is way cheaper as they only do the technical design and drawing rather than the people part.

Thank you. I need creative insights as well as expertise

An architect has spent 6-7 years training a technician much less. It’s a bit like a doctor and a nurse. Both competent but one is more highly skilled!

I think architects are trained to see the whole house and evaluate how you use the house and the best way to utilise space. Technicians will draw up your ideas but are less skilled, in general terms, about looking at the whole picture. They should certainly know more about finishes and products too.

Always use an architect they are chartered so any issues ARB will help with. And as above they study for 6 years to learn the skills, anyone can call themselves a technician, where as only those qualified can use the word architect to describe their skills. It's a bit like a book keeper and an accountant.