Building projects come in various shapes and sizes, yet they all have one thing in common: You will need to hire an architect. Whether its a home, office development, high-rise building or a shopping centre, each job has challenges that can be frightening. That’s where architects come in to guide you. Below are the top five reasons to hire an architect to help you on your journey:

Being an artist comes with the job. Architects are creative and passionate about design. Moving that creative energy into a functional building is what architects do best. There may be unflattering buildings, but a closer look could show the architects’ involvement started and ended at the signature. If you want your dream home, or have the smartest office in town, then you should hire an architect.

This may seem like a contradiction to the first point, but it is true and thankfully so. At the end of the day, a building must function otherwise it’s no longer architecture. A work of art can be architectural, but there’s a line between what makes up a sculpture and a building. That line is usually the ability of the structure to keep you dry during a thunderstorm. Architects are balance keepers and will give you the best of both worlds.

One of the most common mistakes made at the start of a building project is to underestimate how many stakeholders there are. Hire an architect from the start to avoid this pitfall! Like a conductor knows the intricacies of all the different musicians to get the parts to work together as a whole, architects know enough about engineering, costing, building regulations, project management, interior design, landscaping, site selection and design to put it all together in the finest way.

It’s good to have someone you can work with who shares your enthusiasm for what you’re doing. When it comes to a building project, the architect is the go-to professional in this area. Building projects take time, they’re stressful and come with a lot of surprises. Architects are in your corner and understand the enormous financial and emotional investment needed and will assist you every step of the way to make it easy.

There are ways to limit your interaction with an architect, and many people do so in the hopes of “saving money” on the architect’s fee. This often leads to unforeseen costs and problems down the line. Architects must be registered with the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP). This means that architects carry responsibility for your project, and have standards and guidelines set in place to make sure that you receive a professional service. SACAP is there to regulate the industry and protect the people, and that is why you should hire an architect.