Architecture
This is the only scope I take as an architect, and only when the build is in Brazil. I am registered with CAU, Brazil’s council of architecture and urbanism, under A245075-5.
It is work for owners — Brazilian or foreign — building, renovating or extending a property here. Site visits, specification of materials available on the local market, and direct dealings with the builder, in Portuguese, so nothing is lost between the drawing and the wall.
The project begins with the site. Before the first line, I study sun exposure and slope: where the sun comes in at each hour, what the site offers in view and in shade, and what the topography asks for in cut and fill. Working with the site costs less and turns out better.
How it works
After the site comes the routine of whoever is going to live there. How many people, at what hours each room is used, what needs to be near what. The plan grows out of that use, not out of a ready-made parti.
Interiors and light come in alongside, not after. That is the advantage of the three being designed by the same person: the ceiling, the millwork and the lighting are resolved in the same drawing instead of being reconciled on site.
Then the documentation, which on a build in Brazil includes the approval route.
What you receive
Site study with sun exposure and topography.
Plans, sections, elevations and construction detailing.
The planning drawings and the municipal approval process. It is a path I have walked many times, and it tends to be what delays the start of a build the most.
Images of the project, so you can decide on what you will see and not only on what is on the plan.
Where I work
Architecture is the service most dependent on place. The site study needs a visit, and approval depends on the legislation and procedures of each municipality, which differ from city to city.
So I take architecture in Belo Horizonte and the surrounding region. Elsewhere in Brazil, São Paulo included, visits are arranged separately, with travel quoted alongside.
Outside Brazil I do not take architecture. Where a project needs an architect or engineer licensed in your country, I work alongside them, not in their place, and I say so at the first call rather than at the permit stage. Interior design and lighting design do not carry that limitation and are taken remotely, anywhere.
The beauty of a house shows on the first visit. Whether it works, you only find out by living in it.