Are Architect’s Fees Too High | Katerra

It is possible to drive time and cost out of architectural services There is a common fallacy among clients that the advent of technology, from CAD to BIM, has made our jobs as architects easier and therefore our fees should be reduced. In fact, I’ve seen the opposite effect: that these technologies actually encourage the hyper-inflating of drawing sets, so that a project that used to require a 100-sheet set of construction documents now seems to take 150.

Just because the computer makes it easier to cut thousands of sections, doesn’t make it necessary, especially when this information is still depicted two-dimensionally on paper, and then translated on the jobsite by an increasingly less-experienced skilled labor pool.

Instead, how about reducing the amount of effort it takes to design and document a building by completely rethinking the entire process? Let’s learn from virtually every other industry on the planet that has embraced technology holistically instead of piecemeal.

At Katerra, we are experiencing what happens when Silicon Valley takes on building design and construction. With the incorporation of technology through every step of the process, from site optimization to the handover of the keys, we have proven that it is possible to significantly drive both time and cost out of architectural design services, while improving design quality. Think of it in comparison to the automobile industry: have productivity improvements in design and manufacturing resulted in better looking and higher performing cars? (Exhibit A: Tesla). We are proving that our fees can in fact be reduced, with the savings passed on to the owner.

I believe we are finally about to see a vast improvement in the design and delivery of architecture, and the value that architects bring to this new process will not be diminished.

In fact, our services will be more important than ever, just exponentially more efficient.

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