Architecture Prime Ltd is the practice of Registered Architect Paul King, a leading Freelance Architect based in Christchurch and working on projects across New Zealand. Paul is particularly interested in challenging commercial, institutional and residential projects, and rather than simply prescribing slick looking answers copied from the latest design magazines, finds that collaboration with intelligent clients, as well as builders and others in the project delivery team tends to yield more effective, interesting and even exciting solutions. If he has learned anything in 25+ years of practice, it is that valuable design insights and opportunities can come from the most unexpected quarters.
In point of fact, this approach regularly yields some of Paul’s most demanding clients; other architects – the ultimate ‘industry insiders’.
Architects tend to know what it takes to achieve a good outcome, and also know that Paul’s depth in design skill, experience and cutting edge technological expertise and problem solving ability is seldom found together in one person – so they generally keep Paul pretty busy with freelance building design, documentation, design visualization, marketing and other consultancy work.
Paul is not the right fit for every project or client, but if you think you may like to ‘cut out the middle man’ and work with him directly, workloads permitting he does sometimes take on selected private clients who meet certain criteria.
So, if you are not an industry insider yourself, but happen to be a good fit in other ways, what would the merging of these different strands of expertise into one person actually for you? Where is the point of difference?
Every project is different, but in a nutshell, the answer would generally be along the lines of increased efficiency and effectiveness, and more attention to detail – all the ‘behind the scenes’ time, energy and cost normally involved with managing a multi person team, with all the associated office overheads, goes directly into your project instead. You get more bang for your design buck.
As a benchmark for success, Paul should also achieve at least these 5 key things for you:
Maximize value, minimize cost – Good design improves your return on investment. Ask any real estate agent – the same budget can simply achieve that much more for you and your bottom line if intelligently designed for. Your mileage may vary, but a house Paul designed in Halswell, Christchurch recently sold for around 5 times the build cost.
Paul can be contacted here or by emailing [email protected] if you would like to know more about any of the articles on this site, or to pick his brains for some options and suggestions relating to a specific project.