Journal — Studio — — 5 min
The case for one architect
Why every VELORA address is drawn by a single practice, from the first sketch to the last door handle.
Most large residential projects pass through many hands. A concept architect wins the competition, an executive architect delivers it, an interior firm fits it out and a landscape contractor fills the gaps. Each handover is reasonable on its own. Together they wear an idea down to nothing.
We appoint one architect for the whole of a project and keep them until the keys are handed over. It is slower at the start and occasionally more expensive. It is also the only way we have found to finish a building that still looks like its first drawing.
Each handover is reasonable on its own. Together they wear an idea down to nothing.
The arrangement asks a great deal of the architect, so we choose practices that are small enough to stay close to the work. At The Aurelia, the same three people at Atelier Moreau Lund who drew the terraces are now on site every week, checking the stone.
It asks something of us too. Decisions are made once, early, and defended. When a cost plan comes under pressure we look for savings in how something is built, not in what it is.