With the increased urbanization of Kathmandu valley, the importance of hiring designers and engineers has also increased to make your building safe, economical and beautify the overall look of the exterior and interior space that you live in.

Living in Kathmandu you often get a question about your profession, I say I’m an architect. I see a confused expression on their face and when I say I design houses then they give a relief look saying “oh, so you are an engineer”.

            You will definitely find a huge difference comparing a row of buildings of Kathmandu with a row of buildings on similar street conditions in a developed country. The buildings standing here on the streets look chaotic and most of them are not even safe. 

            Kathmandu is facing an un managed rapid urbanization than any other city in Nepal and it’s a pity that the government is doing nothing to control it, but is it only the government to be blamed? After the earthquake many people have changed their perception and are hiring an engineer to build their houses and other living spaces before then engineers were only used to draw them their blueprints and were called only four or five times on the overall period of the construction but is it enough? Hiring an engineer may solve the technical aspects of the building but what about the Functionality and aesthetics and interior aspects that will be with you for many years of your life.

            For a building to be perfect we need Architects, Engineers, Interior Designers and also Product Designers. Many of us are familiar with these professionals but we tend to ignore and many of us are not aware about the difference and limitations of their professional capabilities. People should know that they are different people with a set of limitations and the most important professionals to make your space livable, functional, aesthetically sound and safe from various natural calamities. It might sound bizarre suggesting to hire all of them for your project but when and why do we need them let’s have a look.

ARCHITECTS

Architects are the person you should be consulting at the very beginning. Architects and engineers are different professional and profession but their works are similar. Architects main duties would be considering the requirements of the client and plan it into a living space with each space having a functional, aesthetical and cultural meaning. In layman’s view the role of an architect is to make the building look good but there are lots of other works to do before going for the looks.

Firstly they have to think about the purpose of the building, the capacity that building will hold, the activities the people will do in that building, you might require a lot of small rooms for your office space, but you might not need that many rooms in your residence.

Secondly Architects design building to ensure the safety of the occupants, if the rooms are large but the corridor connecting to it is comparatively small then there might be lots of accidents during an emergency. A good architect always considers the space requirements to hold the occupants at the peak time.

Lastly, they do lots of exercise to make their building stand out, good architects never forget about the proportion, the choice of material. They do lots of detailed drawings for the engineers and builders to make it look the exact same of what they have visualized. Architects usually stay from the beginning to the end of a building project working with engineers to Interior designers. Architects have a huge responsibility to make the project happen but they have limitations, they can design the form, plan the function ensuring the safety but they can’t design Structures.

ENGINEERS

After an architect has designed your building, you go to an engineer; they are the ones specializing in the structural elements involved in the design. It is their duty to erect the structures and turn the design of an architect into a reality, Architects and Engineers should work side by side during the time of construction so as to ensure the building is the way as it was designed and also to maintain the safety of the structures. Usually civil engineers specialized on structures are able to design the framework of the building. They are also the ones who turn the artistic design into quantitative terms and estimate the quantity of materials and the cost of the projects and manage the contractors on the sites.

Not only Civil or structural Engineers but people hire Electrical Engineers, Sanitary engineers and Geotechnical Engineers depending on the size of the projects. Since our city is vulnerable to earthquake it is mandatory that your structures should be designed according to the building codes by an engineer –“A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures.” – WIKIPEDIA

Since engineers are not from an art background they have limited knowledge on aesthetics and space of a building but some experienced engineers can have aesthetics knowledge as well. After the structures, walls and the partitions have been constructed their works are more or less over and then Interior Designers’ role comes to take place.

INTERIOR DESIGNERS

People tend to plan huge spaces for their buildings but most of them are functionless and the ambience doesn’t go with what it should have been. Interior Designers should be hired to create that ambience, if you are in a restaurant but the ambience is like living in somebody’s living room then I’m sure the guests won’t be coming back the next time, or that part of the restaurant may always be unoccupied.

Interior designers works with Architects and the clients; they create wonderful indoor spaces that satisfy the client’s needs for aesthetics, safety and function through the use of furniture placement, color palettes, decorations and functional décor. Interior designers are responsible for the interaction of the interior structures with the occupants living on it.

Although the key responsibility of Architects is the exterior shell of the building but there is no restriction that an architect cannot work as an interior designer, in some projects they have different Interior designers and if you are planning to hire one make sure the architects work along with them so as to make sure the exterior design blends with the interiors.

Product Designers

It’s a new term in the field of Construction especially in Nepal. We have handful of people here practicing as product designers, they are responsible for designing our day to day products from furniture, chairs, lamp shades to small items such as cups, vase etc.

Usually Product designers work for various manufacturing company, Nowadays they are also hired by the client, architects or interior designers to embellish their interior design with unique products that goes with it.

If you want your products in your interiors to be unique and if you don’t like the products from the market or if you have any issue with the standard sizes then obviously you should hire a product designer, they are the ones to design a unique custom made product according to your requirements.

Despite of these many professionals working around us we fail to hire them on the most important decision of our life, in some cases people spend their life’s earning on their dream home or invest it in a building but with no proper guidance which fails in the end and the whole investment is wasted. The devastating earthquake on 25th April 2015 has shown us many examples. It showed the loss was mostly due to the negligence from us. Natural Calamities can’t be stopped but we can reduce the chance of the loss with proper advice and guidance. Safety is the primary concern but along with it comes functions and aesthetics and with proper guidance with you, the buildings will be safe functional and aesthetically pleasing and of course the guidance might cost you design fees and expenses for architects, engineers and designers to work on but I’m sure it will definitely have long term benefits in the future.