Do You Need an Architect to Build a Container House?

In many parts of the world, you do not need to hire an architect to design your new shipping container home.

But, there are some reasons that it would be best to include an architect during your shipping container home construction.

You should hire an architect for their often required seal on permit drawings and receive their services that will make the construction process less stressful. Architects sort through complex codes and zoning laws, design spaces that will fit your personal needs, and will help you find contractors that are best qualified for your project.

Yes, hiring an architect will cost you more money at the front end of your shipping container home construction journey. But, in the end, you will possibly save a lot of money and have the peace of mind knowing that your new home is the best that is could ever be.

What do architects do for you?

Let’s take a look at the five major phases of services that you should expect for an architect.

The Five Phases of an Architect’s Services and Approximate Fee Percentages

Schematic Design Phase – 15% of overall architect’s fees
Design Development Phase – 20% of overall architect’s fees

Construction Document Phase – 40% of overall architect’s fees
Bidding and Negotiation Phase – 5% of overall architect’s fees
Construction Administration Phase – 20% of overall architect’s fees

In the United States, the American Institute of Architects have created a “Standard Form of Architectural Service” that expands on these “five basic services” that architects provide.

A sample copy of this agreement can be found at:

http://content.aia.org/sites/default/files/2017-10/B201_2017.sample.pdf

So, here’s what each one of the phases mean and what you should expect to benefit form each.

Schematic Design Phase

During this phase, after they earn your trust, tell your architect things you might feel are a little personal. These bits of information will be helpful for the architect to use when designing the home to best fit your needs.

In my own practice, while designing homes for my clients (some considered to be the “rich and famous”) and earning their trust to share very confidential things about how they live allowed me to design their new home that fit their personal lifestyle.

All this information becomes the verbal and written project outline that is called “the program.” Programs are a written description of your personal needs that will be used during the design of the physical spaces to fit those needs.

These “personal needs” pieces of information may include the frequency of time spent and activities performed in certain parts of the house. It can include important furniture/home accessories/vehicles/appliances etc. that you want in your new home.

The architect might include their own consultants to join his design team. These consultants may include mechanical/plumbing/electrical engineers, landscapers, and/or building permit expediters.

You might also have your own consultants that you want to be involved with the design of your new home. Such as an interior designer.

At this point, the architect will have a good idea as to how the building will fit on the site, per any zoning restrictions. The applicable codes to follow will also be explored.

Having an architect who can foresee issues that will need to be address early during the design processes will help eliminate any costly changes that would need to be made later during the construction phase. This can be a big cost advantage of using an architect to help you during the building of your new shipping container home.

During this phase, the architect will establish a preliminary design/construction schedule and construction cost budget.

The architect will start sketching out preliminary layouts of your home. This maybe only bubble diagrams and general placement on a site plan.

Massing studies can also be done in this phase. Big 3D blocks can be stacked that represent different areas of your home and other site improvements.

The reason these graphic studies are done is so the architect and the home owner can come to an agreement as to what the overall project requirements are.

If there is to be a specifications written for this project that declares what the contractor is to use when building your home, then the rough outline of the specifications begin in this phase.

Once you and your architect agree on the overall parameters of the project, the next phase will begin.

Design Development Phase

The design of your shipping container home is fine-tuned even more during the design development phase.

More accurate floor plans and building sections are drawn by your architect. These drawings will illustrate where certain key elements will be placed throughout your home that will affect the layout of rooms and other spaces.

A building system will be established for your home. Some building system options that maybe considered include: wood or metal stud walls, insulation types, roofing types, cooling and heating systems, water sources (well water, municipal water, etc.), sustainable systems, sun shading systems, and many others.

When I provide design development services to my clients, I often will provide several different design layouts that my client can review and comment upon. This is an important step to designing the home that reflects and personality of my clients.

Several finishes options for the interior and exterior surfaces are considered.

Product data is gathered. The information from the product data will be used when detailing special conditions and writing the specifications, if the project has specifications, during the next phase.

The architect will also coordinate the updated design with all of the consultants.

The project schedule and budget will be revisited and revised if needed.

Once the design is narrowed down to one layout. We are able to prepare the basic drawings that will be the start of all of the construction drawings to be provided during the next phase.

Construction Document Phase

This phase is the biggest phase of the architect’s design services because it usually takes the longest for the architect to provide the necessary drawings before the construction can start.

You might not have as much interaction with the architect during this phase as you did during the first two phases. This is because you have already signed off on the basic design of the new home. It is now time for the architect to focus on the design and draw up the complete set of drawings needed to illustrate how it will be built.

The architect and the consultants will be busy drawing all the plans, sections, details, door/window/finishes schedules, and writing the specifications that will be used for the next phase, bidding and negotiation.

The construction documents, which includes drawings, specifications and calculations, will also be used to obtain permits to build your new shipping container home.

Once a contractor is chosen, the construction documents will be the “contract documents” that the contractor will use during the construction administration phase.

Any adjustments to the project schedule and budget is also done towards to the end of this phase.

Bidding and Negotiation Phase

This is the shortest phase of the architect’s services. It will probably last for 4 to 6 weeks.

The architect will be a big help during this phase too.

Some of the tasks the architect performs during this phase include:

Preparing a list of potential contractors that might build your new shipping container home.
Invite contractors to prepare and submit bids. Bids will include their price to build your home along with an agreed schedule to complete the construction.
Issue out the construction documents to the bidders.

Conduct a pre-bid meeting with the bidders to introduce the scope of the work to the bidders.
Issue out any changes to the construction documents as addenda to the bidders.
Answer any questions that the bidders need to clarify. This question and answering process is called “Request for Information”, or RFI for short.

Receive, log, and analyze the bids.
Interview a selected smaller number of the bidders. This is often 3 or 4 of the lowest qualified bidders.
Advise to the home owner which bidder would be, in the architect’s opinion, the best choice to award the construction contract to.

It is ultimately the home owner that decides which contractor to use. Unless this is a design/build arrangement the contractor will have a signed agreement directly with the owner.

Now that we have a contractor to build the new shipping container home, we go to the final phase of the architect’s basic services.

Construction Administration Phase

During the construction administration phase, one of the architect’s responsibility is to monitor the construction to maintain the design intent of the project.

The contractor is responsible for obtaining the permits from the municipalities and building the new home by using their own means and methods. The architect does not tell the contractor how to build the home.

As the project progresses, the contractor will submit shop drawings and product data for the architect and the consultants to review and confirm that they comply with the design intent.

Making periodic construction site visits will give the architect insights that are necessary to advise the home owner that the billings are representative to the actual amount of construction completed and/or the construction material purchased and safely stored.

The contractor will need to have various inspections by municipal officials throughout the construction process.

Once the construction of your shipping container home is complete, the architect will issue a letter of substantial completion.

A certificate of occupancy from the municipality will need to be obtained by the contractor before the home owner can move into and live in the new shipping container home.

Additional Services

There are a lot of services beyond the five basic services that the architect can offer the home owner.

Some of these additional services are listed in Article 3 of the sample owner/architect agreement found at: