Time to kickstart the build journey by meeting the professionals and picking either the architect or builder to build your home. I'll do my best to walk you through the available options you have, how I made my decision and some recommendations from me if I could do it again.

Journey

I want to make this essentially a living blog post. As I'm going along this journey. I will update this post in-line so that it will benefit future readers

Once I had some of the project management structure in place, I started looking for the Qualified Person (QP) to build my house. This would be either an architect or builder. There are very few "guides" except for some anecdotes from the reno-talk forum on how to do this. Other than that, it seems that you're pretty much on your own.

I'll break it down in hopefully an easy-to-understand way written by someone who's a "non-person" in the construction industry.

Getting Started

Trying to figure out where to start is likely the most perplexing piece, I thankfully had a friend who studied Architecture at University, so I had someone to ask. But even then, he was not a practicing Architect, so even he had to do some research to help me on this piece.

I met a total of four architects. Three came at the recommendation of friends, and one was recommended via a renovation contractor that worked on my friend's place.

I took quite long to decide on my Architect, part of it was due to me traveling, but I started meeting Architects in February 2024 and only Decided in July 2024. But it only took a single meeting to decide on my architect, and it has proven to be the right decision thus far.

Most of the architects will need access to the SIP, DIP and RLP to be able to advise you on whether certain costs may be necessary at the start. E.g., Piling of the ground, reinforced concrete for the sewerage line, this is your chance to ask questions as well. Provide them the requirements document that I outlined in the first post and ask if they think they can work within your budget plus built-up area.

Where to find Architects

Till this date, I don't really have good suggestions on how to begin searching for an Architect. I suggest some quick searching on Google as well as reaching out to family and friends to see if there's anyone they can suggest.

One other way is going around private estates and looking for houses that are under construction, there is a project board that will detail down the Architect who's responsible for building that particular house.

There's a Register of Architects as well that you can find here:

https://www.boa.gov.sg/find-architects/register-of-architects/

Meeting the Architects/Builders

First Architect

The first architect did not want to go through the tender process and tried to bring in a contractor at the start. This I believe is referred to as "Design and Build" in the industry. If you look up the details about this process, you will realize that DnB projects tend to be more expensive and are used mainly when you need the construction to start earlier rather than later. You won't finish the architect's drawings before the construction starts. The construction will start and the architect will work with you whilst the house is building. So essentially, the house will be built while the architect is coming up with the next set of drawings etc.

Second Architect

The second architect I met with talked about going through a tender process except that we wouldn't need a QS and he would be the QS for the project.

Third Architect

The third architect I spoke to did not do any followups, and I had already eliminated them after that. I think your architect should be available to talk to, and if they can't even follow up after, it pretty much means they are not interested or do not have enough time for your project.

Fourth Architect

The fourth architect was the architect that I chose to go with. I had sent him my requirements document and met him the following week. He came back with a fully drawn out hand-drawn plan based on my requirements document. I looked at it, and that was the piece that convinced me to appoint him as my architect.

Decisions

The following are two common options you can choose when rebuilding a house.

1. The design and build option where you appoint a builder who typically has an in-house architect, and you start the "construction" process first before your plans are even finalized.
2. The "traditional" option of getting the architectural plans drawn out first before inviting contractors to tender based on those plans.

The most important factors for me were: cost and quality. I don't necessarily need the house built fast, I am of the opinion of "do it once and do it right."

Design and Build option

The design and build option was proposed to me by an architect and the builder that they were going to partner with. There are other instances of people engaging builders directly, and they have an in-house architect to do all the necessary planning and submissions to URA. This option is probably for those who don't have the time to go through the process and want someone to oversee it for them. In my opinion, there are a lot more drawbacks to this approach compared to the benefits.

Drawbacks:

• Costs significantly more
• If the builder provides the architect, the architect is likely to act in the best interests of the builder and not you
• Quality may be sacrificed due to speed, mistakes will be made and will then have to be "rectified" (You are paying for all of these, if there are no mistakes made, they earn a bigger margin)
• No transparency on cost which makes it hard to compare prices as everything is a lump sum

I think you would only end up in this situation if you bought a piece of land to redevelop the house, but at that point, couldn't you have just bought a developer project that was already furnished? That would have saved you all the trouble.

"Traditional" option

The "traditional" option is one where you work with the architect to design the floor plans as well as the external look and feel, get permission from URA and open a tender for contractors to submit their proposals. Once the necessary submissions to URA have been completed, the architect would prepare a tender document with the Quantity Surveyor (If you have one). You can choose to invite contractors to bid, but your architect would likely have some past contractors that they have worked with to be able to recommend to you.

This allows you to essentially compare pricing between the contractors as they are working on the same tender document to quote you on. There are more nuances around this as well, but I'll save it for a separate post.

Drawbacks:

• Slower overall build time
• You have to be more involved with the architect to make decisions on the various professionals you have to hire, e.g., structural engineer, surveyor, etc.

Evaluating the architects/builders

I found myself overcomplicating things at the start. I kept trying to think of what was appropriate for me to ask for if I was not yet a paying client. But I think at the end of the day, this is a typical business transaction.

I think it's reasonable enough to ask for a sketch plan from the architects to see if they can envision what you want. Otherwise, how are you actually evaluating each architect? They will show you their past projects, and what they are capable of, testimonials etc. but, remember that architects do not eventually "build" the house. That is done by various main contractors that may or may not have worked with the architect before.

Both the architects and main contractors have their own varying levels of "quality" so it's really nuanced here. Here are some suggestions on how to evaluate the architect/builder:

1. Ask to see if you can visit some houses that were done by the architects to see how they've held up over the years, focus on the design of the house and if you like the look and feel.
2. See if you can speak with the previous owners (I didn't do this) that have worked with the architect and what their feedback is like.
3. If it's a design and build that they are proposing, ask to visit one of their projects to see how their quality/finishing is like
4. Ask how many projects the architect/builder is currently working on to be able to estimate if they have the capacity to take on your project
5. If the architect doesn't follow up with you, they probably aren't the architect you want to engage as that may mean that they have too many projects or responsibilities that they are tied up with.
6. Ask for a sketch plan which should take about a week to complete and evaluate based on the plan that they gave you

Summary

Keep in mind that each architect typically has their own agenda. You are looking for an architect that will fit your needs. An architect who is open and transparent with you. If an architect has not done something before, they likely won't have the confidence to do it, but that doesn't mean that they should tell you it's not possible. You want them to "check" if it's possible since they are the professionals and not lie by omission.

A good bad example of this was with the first architect. I am trying to build a multi-generational family home within a specific budget and based on that initial budget, they should know whether it's possible or not. E.g., $350–450 per square feet (psf) as a rough gauge to determine the built-up size. They started showing me very nice luxury houses from their portfolio, Good Class Bungalows, kitchens that were designed for private chefs which totally did not align with me at all. I asked if it was possible to have a water collection system and was told a straight up no, which is not exactly true. It is possible, but it just makes the submission a lot more complex if the water system is directly integrated into the home.

I had the most meetings with the first architect as they were referred to me by a trusted friend, and they seem to have a decent name in the industry. They were very focused on "closing" the deal more so than working with me to understand my requirements and trying to fit within my budget (TBH my budget is not unreasonable). He offered to do some mockups to help me visualize what the layout would be and gave me very poor mockups which my Architect friend said was a days worth of intern work. I think that's frankly unacceptable considering they were asking for a minimum of $120,000 or 6% if the project is above $2,000,000. They got basic things like the placement of the gate wrong, the second revision took more than a week and didn't incorporate what I asked for. Therefore, I decided that they weren't the right fit for me and stopped talking to them since they weren't listening to me.

In my opinion, architects are going to be paid $80,000 to $120,000, sometimes 6–10% of the project amount or even more. They have to put in the effort to engage you as the owner otherwise what service are they rendering to you? Would you pay someone $120,000 and the first example of the work they give you is a poorly drawn mockup?

In the tech industry, the sales folks put a lot of effort into closing their clients. You would probably need to conduct a Proof of Concept or Proof of Value before you even talk about how much it will cost, etc.

The architects are the professionals here, and they need to understand that we do not build houses for a living, and that's exactly why we are engaging them with their expertise. This means helping us visualize what the house will look like, explaining the process, reminding us about decisions that need to be made earlier rather than later, etc.

Based on my requirements, I went with the traditional option as costs and quality were my guiding principles.

I am more than happy to be corrected on any misconceptions I have within this post, this is my POV as someone not in the construction industry, so I may not have the correct idea, perspective or expectations.