| What do architects do? |
| Primarily architects design buildings and, on behalf of their clients, obtain contractors to construct the building. |
| What is a Contractor? |
| A contractor is a builder who enters into a contract with someone who wishes to have a building built. |
| What is a sub-contractor? |
| A sub-contractor is a person or company specialising in some element of building. The two most important sub-contractors, because of their cost and the type of work, are electrical and plumbing/heating contractors. |
| Do I need Planning Permission? |
| “Development” refers to almost anything which changes the physical appearance of a place or the use of the place and almost all development requires permission. There are, however, exceptions which are referred to as “Exempted Developments”. There are general exceptions listed in Section 4 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and specific exceptions which are listed in the Schedules attached to the 2001 Planning and Development Regulations (SI 600 of 2001). Each exception is subject to certain conditions which are explained in the relevant documents. Generally a single storey extension to the rear of an existing house, and which does not stick out at the sides, up to a limit of 40 sq m (440 sq ft) is exempted development. Most exemptions do not apply to Protected Structures. |
| What is the Planning Application Process? |
| Planning Control was introduced in Ireland in 1963 since when each Local Authority has been obliged to prepare a “Development Plan”. This plan, which is subject to public review, and which is updated every five years, sets out the objectives of the council and lays down certain development standards, such as heights and densities, and divides the county into zones in which various types of activity are permitted. Almost all development requires permission. This is obtained by making an application to the council. The application, which must be advertised in a national or local newspaper and on a site notice, is submitted to the council along with a fee, (substantial for non-residential buildings) and other appropriate documentation. This can include a statement of compliance with the requirement for providing social and affordable housing, a ground test showing suitability for waste treatment plants, conservation method statements, evidence of local needs in the case of rural housing and many other types. The planning application must be deemed by the council to be in absolute compliance with its often strange interpretation of the regulations and an extraordinary number of applications are deemed invalid and returned to the applicant who must then start the process all over. The invalidation may take place at any time within eight weeks. Anyone may then, within 5 weeks of the application and on payment of a fee of €20, make a submission in support of or against your proposal. These submissions have no power of veto, but must merely be taken into account by the planning officer. Frequently, and usually around the fifth week, the council may request “Additional Information”. Sometimes this is genuinely required for the council to adjudicate upon the matter properly, but it is often suspected that it is used as a stalling mechanism to allow the council more time to make its decision, which it must ordinarily do within eight weeks. At the end of the eighth week, and rarely before, the council ”decides” to grant or refuse permission, but note that it doesn’t actually do so. Often this is mistakenly referred to as an actual grant/refusal. If at the end of a further four weeks no-one has appealed the decision to the higher authority, an Bord Pleanala, the original decision will stand and actual grant/refusal will issue, usually a couple of weeks later. You don’t have permission until you receive this. If the council decides to refuse permission you may appeal that decision to Bord Pleanala within four weeks, on payment of the appropriate fee. It is essential that your appeal is correctly formatted as otherwise it will be invalidated as a great many are. If someone else objects to your proposal but the council decides to grant permission anyway, they may appeal to the Bord within four weeks, but only on presentation of proof of payment of the fee for their original objection. Many people forget to include the proof and so their appeals are invalidated. Typically the Bord takes six months to decide an appeal, longer if it is a complicated proposal or if it involves an oral hearing. Oral hearings, which are of doubtful benefit to applicants but may favour well-organised lynch mobs, are only granted for matters of special importance. When you get permission, whether from the council or an Bord, it will have conditions attached. Mainly these are standard conditions relating to building in accordance with the drawings, but they sometimes so fundamentally change the permission that it is no longer for the scheme you intended, so getting permission doesn’t necessarily mean you are getting what you want. Often clients will say that they used or are going to use a local architect or woodwork teacher in some far-flung county, because “he knows the planners” and is therefore more likely to obtain permission. In our experience planners are very rarely around long enough for anyone to get to know them and in any event they are obliged to consider your proposal in the context of the Development Plan. Thus, if the Development Plan were to say that 37 storey tower blocks are permitted in Ballsbridge, the council would then have to decide to grant permission. There are admittedly cases where certain uses are “open for consideration" and here the situation can become more murky but in general we have found that planners attempt to consider applications fairly. They can and sometimes do stray outside their remit and try to impose their personal aesthetic tastes on applicants, and they occasionally misunderstand their own overly complicated development plans, but we do not believe they favour particular architects. There is virtually no enforcement of planning in Ireland except, occasionally, on foot of sustained third party objections. |
| What are Building Regulations? |
| Building regulations are concerned solely with construction methods and have no bearing on the aesthetics or use of a building (except in relation to fire). They evolved from building standards which date back to antiquity. Draft Building Regulations were prepared in the early 1970s to replace Building Byelaws then in use in the major cities (there were none in rural areas) and were made law following the Stardust fire of 1982. Originally they were prescriptive, requiring that walls of certain materials have certain thicknesses and so on, but in a later redraft they were changed to being performance based. Accordingly many of the regulations are one-liners stating that “the building must not fall down” and the like, but they are backed up by very technical guidance documents. Compliance with the guidance is considered evidence that you have complied with the Regulations but it is not the only way to comply. The regulations deal with most aspects of construction, including structure, drainage, insulation, heating, fire resistance and escape, design of stairs and ramps and disabled access. Private houses are required to comply with most of the regulations, including some provision of universal access. |
| Do I need to apply for Building Regulation Approval? |
| No, but you must build in compliance with the regulations, and you must be in a position to provide documentation demonstrating compliance if required to do so. Building Control Officers may inspect buildings completed or under construction and demand changes to the fabric of the building if they deem it non-compliant. |
| Do I need a Health and Safety Plan? |
| Yes, for all projects other than routine and virtually risk-free maintenance and one-off private houses and domestic extensions. |
| Do I need a Health and Safety Officer? |
| Yes. Officially called a Project Supervisor (Design Process) and (Construction Stage) these must be appointed in writing independently of any other consultant, (although they can also be your architect and contractor), wherever the works need a Health and Safety Plan. |
| Do I have to employ an architect? |
| No, there is no obligation on anyone wishing to make a building to employ an architect or any advisor. However, you are obliged to comply with the Planning and Building laws and regulations, and failure to do so can lead to prosecution. |
| Why should I employ one? |
| Architects are trained to analyse your situation and your site from scratch, with no preconceived notions, but with the knowledge and experience necessary to produce a design which will satisfy your requirements. |
| What does it cost? |
| Employing an architect typically costs 10% of the construction cost of a building net of VAT . VAT is charged on the fee at a current rate of 21%. This is recoverable by businesses registered for VAT. So for a house of 150 sq m (1,600 sq ft) and costing €2,000 per sq m the cost would be €30,000 + €6,300 VAT. However the rates vary according to the building type and size. |
| Will I see a return on that money? |
Yes. That is why all state sponsored bodies and nearly all private sector companies employ architects for their building work, even though they don’t have to. Taking a €30,000 fee as an example, it is broken down into categories as follows:
We will first describe stages B and C: You will probably need to apply for planning permission and for this purpose you will need a properly prepared set of drawings. In our opinion, even if there was no design input at all from your consultant, because, for example, you knew “exactly what you wanted”, this task should take at least seven working days or 15% of the fee. This element of the fee is costing €4,500 for which your site is, hopefully, transformed from one which has no permission to one that has. Next, to prepare a comprehensive set of detailed drawings sufficient to enable the builder to build exactly as intended, and not to have to rely on his own sometimes fertile imagination, should take in the region of another sixteen working days, or 35% of the fee. For a one-off house this tender documentation will comprise, say, ten A1 sheets, a specification and schedules, and smaller tender sets for specialist elements such as windows, sanitary-ware, kitchen plumbing/heating and electrics. This work will cost €10,500 of the overall fee. The most critical element in ensuring that you get the building you expect is a comprehensive set of construction (tender) drawings. This is because any changes made as a result of unforeseen events will be charged at a premium by your builder. It also allows you to compare like with like when evaluating tenders. If you invite tenders on a simplified set of drawings, such as those which are used for planning applications, you will get wildly fluctuating tenders and you will not be in a position to properly compare them. Worse, the lowest will have been submitted with a view to charging a lot extra for every conceivable item not included on the drawings or specification, and you will end up paying a lot more than €10,500 it would have cost for proper documentation. So, the above two stages (B & C) are costing you €15,000 or half the fee. The remaining €15,000 is for two more (A & D) . The first, A, is for the design, assuming you are not the client “who knows exactly what you want”. This is costing you €6,000. For this you get an architect with, in our case, an average forty years post-graduate experience, to visit your site or building and walk it with you; to discuss your living or working arrangements; to meet with you and your family or colleagues, and to come up with a number of alternative proposals which are site specific and which take into account those things which should be properly considered. These include important factors such as orientation and sunlight, views, prevailing winds, topography, access, physical features and neighbouring buildings. The last element of our fee (D) is for monitoring the contract on site and for issuing Opinions on compliance with the Planning Permission and Building Regulations, which are important documents kept with your title deeds. For this last instalment of €9,000 you get the peace of mind of fortnightly (or sometimes weekly) site meetings by one of our partners, with corresponding reviews and reports to you on the progress generally and on compliance with the contract documentation. The total fee of €30,000 would, in a house of this size, be approximately the same as the plumbing and heating installation |
| Do you guarantee that I will get planning permission? |
| No! Generally we will approach the planning authority with a sketch proposal and they will indicate whether they are broadly in favour of the project. However, they tend to be as non-committal as possible, and there is no guarantee that in grey areas, such as where a building type is “open for consideration” they will not change their mind when they see more detailed proposals. Also, it is usually a relatively junior planner whom you get to see, and it is not uncommon for a more senior official to take another view. Also, third party objections may be made and the planners can often agree with some or all of the points contained in such submissions. Even if the planners do not agree with a third party submission and decide to grant you planning permission, the objector will likely appeal to an Bord Pleanala, where, statistics show, planners’ decisions are reversed or varied in a staggering 67.5% of cases although these rates vary greatly from county to county. In some counties (Carlow and Limerick) the councils’ decisions were upheld in only 15% of cases. (Bord Pleanala Annual Report 2007, Appendix 2, P 36 http://www.pleanala.ie/publications/index.htm.) Even the proportion of cases in which the Board overturns the recommendation of its own senior inspectors is sufficient to confirm that the application procedure is not as consistent as one might wish. |
| Do you offer a “no foal - no fee” charging structure? |
| No. We will advise the client in good faith whether we think the project is feasible. But given the vagaries of the planning system as described above, and given that just as much work goes into a refused planning permission as a granted one, we could not afford to waive the fees on refused applications. If we did it would mean that those clients who had more straightforward projects or sites would be subsidising those with tricky ones, which would be patently unfair. It would also mean that all the risk would be transferred from the person who stood to gain most - you - the applicant, to us! |
| Does the architect supervise the work? |
| No. The architect monitors the work to see that it is generally in accordance with the tender documentation, but it is the builder who has the contract with the client and it is his legal obligation to carry out the work in accordance with those documents. If, for example, it is found long after completion that the builder has omitted an element of the building, it remains his responsibility to rectify the error. It is not the architect’s responsibility to be on site at all times, although he should and does satisfy himself that the general level of workmanship is acceptable. |
| Will my building comply with the building regulations? |
| Yes, we will design your building so that it meets or exceeds the requirements of the Building Regulations and we will issue a certificate to that effect. |
| Do I need a Fire Certificate? |
| Yes, generally, but not for private houses. |
| Do I need a BER Cert? |
| Yes, a Building Energy Rating Certificate is a measure of how much energy your building uses. You need one if you are selling or renting your house, but not if it is a Protected Structure. |
| Do I need an Accessibility Certificate? |
| Yes, for new non-domestic buildings or where material alterations take place the altered work requires a DAC. The fee (to the council) is €800. |
| What is a Protected Structure? |
| Protected Structures (which used to be known as Listed Buildings) are buildings, usually old, which are deemed by the local authority to be of such significance that they should be protected from demolition or change to their character. Protection legally obliges an owner to keep a structure in good repair. |
| Is my building a Protected Structure? |
| If so, you should have been notified. Protected Structures are included on a Register held by each Local Authority and usually available on their website. |
| Can I have my building removed from the Register of Protected Structures? |
| Yes, there is provision for applying for removal but there have been very few successful applications. |
| Are there grants available for repairs to Protected Structures? |
| Yes, there is a scheme funded by the Department of the Environment and administered by Local Authorities, which will fund up to 50% of repair work to Protected Structures subject to certain conditions. Applications are accepted annually in February. The application must include a proposal and a tender by an advisor (architect) and contractor who are both tax compliant. |
| What has Cathal O’Neill Architects done? |
| In forty-nine years we have completed hundreds of buildings ranging from small domestic extensions to large offices for government bodies. Our private sector clients have included AIB, Behaviour and Attitudes, Irish Press, City of Dublin Bank, Diocese of Cloyne, Diocese of Dublin, and Park Developments. Public sector clients include CIE, UCD, Dublin City, Laois and Limerick Co. Councils, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Education, HSE and Waterways Ireland. We have designed in the order of thirty individual new houses and over one hundred domestic extensions and hundreds of apartments and Local Authority houses. We have also designed and completed new government offices and laboratories, shops and shop-fronts, new sports clubs and pavilions, a new school, new university buildings, a telephone exchange, churches, healthcare facilities, bus and train stations, newspaper headquarters, social welfare offices, swimming pools and factories. We have also carried out alterations and conservation work on a wide range of protected Structures including the Pro-cathedral Dublin and the Masonic Boys’ School Clonskeagh (now UCD School of Architecture). |
| Yes, but what style do you do? |
| We are contemporary architects but we are not wedded to any particular “style”. The style of a building evolves from its context, its owners’ requirements and modern building methods. All of our buildings use as much natural light and ventilation as possible. |
| Do you do “sustainable”? |
| Yes. Cathal also trained under Ludwig Hilberseimer at IIT Chicago. Hilberseimer had developed theories on sustainability while working in the Bauhaus in the twenties and was especially concerned with the application of orientation in architecture, so much so that a special celebration was held by the students in his honour on every summer solstice. Under Cathal’s directorship of UCD School of Architecture the Energy Research Group was set up there by J. Owen Lewis in 1980. Garrett has continued this interest and participated in the inaugural master class of Glenn Murcutt (Australia 2001) the renowned Australian practitioner of sustainable architecture. All of our buildings make use of passive solar energy insofar as they invariably have significantly more glass facing south than in other directions and fenestration to the north is restricted (an exception to this were laboratory buildings where cooling and even natural light were required). Many of our more recent houses have incorporated heat pumps (geo thermal) with both vertical and horizontal collectors and in the EPA HQ, Kilkenny, we used a large bank of solar panels for domestic hot water. In the Smyth/Croasdell houses, (Kilmacud 2006) we used prefabricated timber frame buildings with triple glazed argon filled windows, cellulose attic insulation and a ventilation/heat recovery system. |
| Are there grants available for energy conservation measures? |
| Yes, Sustainable Energy Ireland offer grants for a wide range of conservation measures in new and existing houses, including boiler replacement and the provision of insulation, heat-pumps and solar panels. Grants must be applied for and granted before any work takes place. |
| What’s wrong with pattern book plans? |
| Typically, pattern book plans or those available online have not been designed either for a particular person or family or a specific site. Very few take any account of orientation, views, prevailing winds or whether the site is sloping or level. None take account of adjoining buildings or local traditions and materials. Many (but not all) of the designs are of poor quality and are designed by people who have inadequate training. Often, they will not include drawings detailed enough to enable you to construct the building, and you will in any case require someone to prepare the planning permission application, to help you appoint a builder and certify compliance with various statutory controls specifically planning permission and the building regulations. |