Document 10, Questions
Questions
What people ask before asking for a quote. The answers are short, and they also say what cannot be promised in advance.
- Do I have to use a registered architect?
- A private individual building for themselves must engage an architect on the Order’s register once the whole exceeds 150 m² of floor area or footprint — the total after works, not the extension alone. A company must, whatever the area. Below that threshold, nothing requires it. Kelliane Guerin holds the French State diploma (architecte D.E., ENSA Lyon) and is not on the register: above the threshold, the project is carried by a registered architect as its author, and the studio works alongside them.
- How much does it cost?
- No price is shown here, because a price given without having seen the place would be wrong — too high or too low. What can be said is how it is built. Three forms depending on the work: a fixed fee for a file whose outline is known (a prior declaration, a permit, a rendered view); a percentage of the works for a commission that runs through to site; a day rate for production work for practices. A written proposal follows the visit: scope, phases, fees. The feasibility study is deducted from the fee if the commission continues.
- How long does it take?
- A first message gets an answer within 48 hours. Beyond that, the one delay nobody here controls is the town hall’s: a prior declaration or a permit is examined from the date it is lodged, for a period set by the planning code — longer in protected areas. Study time depends on the project and how far along it is: it is written into the proposal, with the phases, rather than promised in advance on a page.
- Who does what on site?
- The studio draws, consults contractors and follows execution: site meetings, minutes, payment approvals, handover. Contractors build and remain liable for their works. Depending on the project, a structural engineer, an inspection body and sometimes a safety coordinator join in. The studio neither builds nor acts as client: the owner decides and signs.
- Do you work for other practices?
- Yes, and it is a large part of the work: outsourced production and extra hands for architecture practices and engineering offices. DWG drawings from sketch to construction, complete planning files, views, layouts, QGIS mapping — returned in your own templates and layer naming, billed by the day on a clear quote. Details on the page devoted to it.