you can have anything you want, as long as it is what I say.

Sorry - I will not build that. Imagine you hire a professional designer and builder to control the construction of your home in totality. You have no say in anything that is proposed, designed or constructed including how you live, and the space you actually want. If that is not enough, the designer will not take on the project unless veto power on all matters is surrendered. Your involvement: pay the bill. All of it. Without dispute. Regardless of the amount. If this sounds like a dream working relationship then we need to sit down, right now, so I can show you the home I have designed only for you.

Is this reasonable working relationship to expect of clients to agree to? Why not?

Would a client influence a surgeon in their work? “No, no, I do not think making the incision there is the right way to get at the problem, why don’t you start here? … Are you sure there is an organ there, let me Google it”. Or how about an engineer “you don’t need this steel beam, the string will be fine”. Better still, a pilot “go that way its faster, I mapped it on Google earth”.

But a designer? Hold on “I can do that”, after all anyone can. “I have style, my own ideas and I did all the research myself”

But you are missing one thing and this is what separates most: experience. Picasso could paint something with ease because even though the individual painting took 5 minutes it is a lifetime of experience painting that gifted him that ability.

Self designed projects or highly influenced designs by clients are not as thorough, resolved, and sometimes omit critical items. All because of a gross lack of experience. I would even suggest that a designer that does not debate ideas without force or pursue with vigor clear intention, motive, and concept; even at the risk of offending the client also lacks experience and will not be able to act on the best interests of the client and more importantly the project?

A designers ideas draw on their experience and the mistakes of the past (so you don’t make them).

The bigger question is what would happen if you said to me, your designer “here is the lot, show me what you got”. I can tell you that the project would be my priority, like a loved child, it would be executed as close to perfection as I could because the idea is mine. It would be reconciled in all aspects, how it is inhabited, sensitive to the land and the surroundings and above all it would command my full attention, after all it is a creation I am responsible for.

On a recent trip to Pennsylvania I visited a couple of homes that are the product of this process. The Kaufmann and the Hagen family (for which I would like to thank in having the foresight and courage to build these homes) allowed a professional to control the design. Totally. That means everything. Right down to furniture. Everything. Perhaps they were naive but it is clear they were forward thinkers even by today’s standards.

A designer is as great as his or her client. Frank Lloyd Wright, author of these homes was a great designer supported by equally great clients that nurtured his talent. In exchange they inherited ecological, respectful, fulfilling, peaceful sanctuaries for their families. It came at a cost; you can have anything you want as long as it is what he said.

Thank you to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Palumbo family for their work in preserving theses treasures.
http://www.paconserve.org/