A friend of mine used the Simon project. They engaged the architect for a hour. He gave them some very useful tips and expanded their knowledge about what they could achieve on their site. It was a house extension. They then incorporated those ideas into their plans when getting costings elsewhere. They did not feel under any pressure to use the architect with whom they had connected through the Simon community, (and in fact they didn't use him) but they do believe the "donation" for the consultation was money well spent.
DeirdeD
i feel that you are missing the point, if an architectural technologist could do the 'same drawings' as an architect there would be no architects in existence..
i know several excellent architectural technologists, and there is nothing wrong with employing one if their skill-set matches your requirements.
an architect brings different skills to the table, and should produce a better designed project due to their design-based training.
anybody can 'do drawings', its the content of said drawings that you are paying the architects fees for.
it was an RIAI one.......
Had a look at this on the web. The open day is the 7th of March this year. Fee is €75 and that goes to Simon community.There is a good choice of architects.
Looks interesting if you are just starting off. We hope to do some work to the house next year so might look into this to get some initial ideas from an architect.
Has anyone else used the Simon Opendoors in previous years?