A design fee is often presented as a percentage, which is a convenient way of avoiding the question. What follows is an attempt to answer it properly.
Most of it is thinking
On a typical residential commission, roughly sixty percent of our hours are spent before anything is drawn that a client will ever see. Surveys, sun studies, adjacency testing, three plans that were wrong and one that was not.
A further twenty-five percent is documentation — the 1:5 details, the schedules, the tender packs. This is the least glamorous work we do and the single largest determinant of whether the finished room is good.
You are not buying a scheme. You are buying the eleven schemes we discarded to arrive at it.
On procurement margin
We take a stated percentage on procured value and share every supplier invoice at cost. Undisclosed margin is common in this industry and we think it corrodes the relationship it depends on.
A client who understands where their money goes asks better questions, and better questions make better buildings.
Written by
Sanjana Tyagi
Filed under Studio Stories on 9 December 2024.
