Interesting thred
I could not help but put my 2 cents in on this one. I guess I am both a draftsman and Architect. Studied drafting then did architecture and subsequently registered.
For your fairly standard residential project a drafty/ building designer with good experience will often be very capable and give what you need and expect from them. So in the general context of this forum, a good drafty is probably up to the job.
What is often over looked within Architects fee is that not only do you get the the design experience, but much of this is project management. Only a very small amount of what we do is design (unfortunately). Much of the time is spent either resolving the technical detail, coordinating other consultants, dealing with council planners. If you have tricky planning issues or other complexities that have knock on effects to the design you would be well advised to seek out an experienced local architect. They should be there to hold your hand through this whole process, responsibility never end with just the hand over of drawings.
I guess at the end of the day it comes down to what level of refinement you want for the project. If it is your dream house, you probably want thought given to every detail. Like the size, shape and colour of the the bathroom tiles to the waterproofing of the roof that maybe an odd shape to achieve the maximise solar access throughout the winter on a difficult site... etc. It is amazing how complex the "simple" house gets. On the flip side, if you want to achieve a low cost job for an investment property that you don't intend to hold and you can give the builder scope to fill in the blanks in the design, than you will probably get good value from a drafty.
Hope this helps.
I could not help but put my 2 cents in on this one. I guess I am both a draftsman and Architect. Studied drafting then did architecture and subsequently registered.
For your fairly standard residential project a drafty/ building designer with good experience will often be very capable and give what you need and expect from them. So in the general context of this forum, a good drafty is probably up to the job.
What is often over looked within Architects fee is that not only do you get the the design experience, but much of this is project management. Only a very small amount of what we do is design (unfortunately). Much of the time is spent either resolving the technical detail, coordinating other consultants, dealing with council planners. If you have tricky planning issues or other complexities that have knock on effects to the design you would be well advised to seek out an experienced local architect. They should be there to hold your hand through this whole process, responsibility never end with just the hand over of drawings.
I guess at the end of the day it comes down to what level of refinement you want for the project. If it is your dream house, you probably want thought given to every detail. Like the size, shape and colour of the the bathroom tiles to the waterproofing of the roof that maybe an odd shape to achieve the maximise solar access throughout the winter on a difficult site... etc. It is amazing how complex the "simple" house gets. On the flip side, if you want to achieve a low cost job for an investment property that you don't intend to hold and you can give the builder scope to fill in the blanks in the design, than you will probably get good value from a drafty.
Hope this helps.