What we ask before we agree

This is a companion piece to Tomas's recent essay on the first hour of a project. He wrote about what the conversation is for. I wanted to write about what we actually ask in it.

The questions

We have refined the list over years. It is short on purpose. We rarely get through all of it in one hour, and we do not need to.

"What is this project trying to do that your current situation cannot?"

This is almost always the first thing we ask. Most clients have not been asked it before. Most of them have to think for a minute before answering. The answer, once it comes, tells us more than any brief document could.

"Who else will live with this decision?"

Architecture is rarely commissioned alone. There are usually partners, children, parents, business partners, neighbors, future tenants. We want to know who they all are, and which of them will be in the room when decisions get made.

"What would make this project a disaster, in your view?"

Asking what success looks like is useful. Asking what failure looks like is more useful. People are clearer about what they do not want than about what they do.

"If we had to stop the project after design and not build it, would the design itself have been worth doing?"

This is a question about whether the client values design as a thing in itself, or only as a means to a building. There is no correct answer — both kinds of client can be wonderful to work with — but we want to know which kind we are sitting across from.

"When did you last hire someone for a creative project, and how did it go?"

A client who has hired architects, writers, designers, or builders before brings a different posture to the work than a client who has not. Neither is better. But the experience changes how we should run the project.

What we do with the answers

We do not score the answers. We do not have a rubric. We listen.

By the end of the hour, both sides usually know whether the fit is right. The agreement that follows, if it follows, is just a formality.