The Architect

Our homeowners have discovered that they and others have a variety of requirements that need to be addressed in order to establish a safe and secure home. Just as the requirements came from a number of sources, so too do the means of meeting them.

In order to protect themselves and their children, the physical structure of the home, the environment in which the home will be built, and also their financial security, they will have to employ an array of means. Some will involve approved products, best practices, and closely supervised installation and configuration. Other means will involve well understood and enforced policy, and monitoring services. While the house is under construction, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, roofers, and their suppliers and supervisors will be involved. A series of inspectors will verify compliance with building codes, and plans. Systems will be tested . And before the home is finally occupied, a final certification will need to be granted.

So who will ensure that all requirements are addressed, and that all means are effectively employed, and that everything fits and works together? Our requirements and the means selected to meet them must meet in a common context. This context is called an architecture.

The architect will create a series of documentation that portrays a variety of perspectives of the home. People with different skills in providing each of the means will each use a portion of the documents produced by the architect to fit their means into the overall context of the home. The documents for the carpenters, for example, will only show those aspects of construction that are relevant to carpentry.

The architect will be the central controller of all of these different perspectives. If changes need to be made in one discipline, electrical wiring for example, the architect will make sure that the change does not adversely impact any other aspect of the home.

Well done architectural documentation will not only serve a purpose during construction of the home. If the homeowners are able to retain a set of the architectural drawings, then they will be able to refer to them throughout their ownership of the home whenever they want to plan a modification to the home. The homeowners could choose to annotate, or maintain the architectural documents so that they have a current, accurate depiction of the relationship of the various components of the home.