Design Aesthetics · Since 1996

Questions that come up first

Scope, stages, fees, supervision, drawings and what the practice does not do, answered before the first meeting.

The questions that come up first, answered here so the first meeting can be about your building rather than about how the practice works.

Scope and stages

What is actually included?: Design, presentation drawings, working drawings, structural and MEP drawing coordination, and site supervision. Construction, labour and material procurement sit with you and your contractor. The full list, with what is not included, is on what you receive. The full deliverable list.
What is the sequence, and what does each stage deliver?: Eight stages in the same order on every project: consultation, presentation drawings, working drawings, structural drawings, MEP services drawings, site supervision, and closure. What you receive at each stage and what triggers each payment is published in full before the first meeting. The stages and payment triggers.
Do you take on the construction as well?: No. The practice does not build and does not take on turnkey engagements. Labour, materials and contractor payment stay with you. This is stated because it is the most common misunderstanding at a first meeting.
How long does a project take?: It depends on the type, the site and the approvals. The practice will state a programme for your project after seeing it, and will not invent a timeline before that. Historically the practice’s commercial and factory cycles ran four to six months, while residential builds run longer.

What will it cost?: The fee is quoted per square foot, by typology, and staged across the engagement, so it is comparable with the figure a builder or a lender will quote you in. What moves the number is the scope, the site and the visit load. No band is published, because a band quoted before the site has been seen is a guess.
What triggers each payment?: Each stage carries its own payment trigger, and the whole structure is published. In short: an advance covers the presentation drawings, and the later payments release the working, structural and MEP sets and the supervision stage. Nothing is charged off that structure. The payment triggers, stage by stage.
Why is there an advance?: It covers the drawing work before it is done, and it converts a conversation into a commitment. In thirty years of practice, the clients who paid the advance willingly finished their projects; the ones who wanted the drawings first and the money later produced the disputes and the half-finished drawings.
Are site visits included in the fee?: Site visits are built into the fee for the supervision period the engagement defines. Beyond that window, site-visit charges apply, at a rate stated before work starts. The fee accounts for distance and duration.

Who is on site, and how often?: The principal architect takes the brief, produces the drawings and supervises the site in person. In and around Aligarh that means twice a week, because the projects sit within a few kilometres of each other. For a project further out the visit schedule is agreed before work starts and written into the fee for the supervision period.
Do you supervise a project outside Aligarh?: Supervision follows the project, not the map. The practice works across Delhi NCR and Uttar Pradesh, and out-of-district drawings and consulting are scope options. What changes with distance is the visit schedule and what it costs, not whether the site is supervised.
Will you supervise a building that another architect drew?: Supervision is part of a design engagement here, not a standalone product today. A client with drawings already in hand who needs an independent review is a real need, and it is one of the models the practice intends to offer once it has been delivered and priced properly. Until then it is not advertised.

What drawings do I receive?: A working set a contractor builds from: plans with dimensions at the wall and levels as numbers, elevations and sections, details and junctions, schedules and the specification, plus structural and services drawings coordinated against them. The sheet groups are listed on the drawings page. What a set contains.
Do you provide 3D renders or a walkthrough?: Visualisation is outsourced, and it is not offered as a standard deliverable today. Offering it before it has been delivered once would be a promise made ahead of the capability. Where a project needs renders or a walkthrough, they can be arranged with the practice’s visualisation partner and priced as their own item.
What do I get at handover?: A final review against the drawings, a closed snag list, fifteen to twenty photographs and a short video of the finished building, and a handover file with the drawings and correspondence for your own records. Handover is a deliverable here, not a favour. On handover files.

Who will I be dealing with?: The principal, Rakesh Parihar. There is no team between you and the work and no account manager. If you call about your building, you are calling the person who drew it. The practice.
How quickly will I hear back?: Every enquiry reaches the principal directly and is answered within two working days. The 48-hour promise is stated on the contact page, next to the form that carries it. Start a project.
How many projects does the practice run at once?: Eight to twelve, held there by choice. That is the number the principal can personally draw and supervise, and it is what makes supervision on this practice mean the principal on site rather than a formality.
Do you work outside Aligarh?: Yes. The practice works across Delhi NCR and Uttar Pradesh, with Aligarh as its anchor market, and takes out-of-district drawings and consulting further afield where the scope suits it.

Do you produce structural and MEP drawings in house?: No. Both are produced with the practice’s partners and coordinated against the architectural drawings by the practice. The coordination and the review are the practice’s; the specialist drawings are not.
Do you appoint or pay my contractor?: No. The practice advises on the drawings and the work against them. It does not appoint your contractor or manage their payments.
Do you have a team that manages the build?: No. The practice is one principal with structural and visualisation partners. That is the reason the concurrent ceiling is 8 to 12, and the reason supervision is the principal in person.

If the answer you need is not here, ask it directly. Every enquiry reaches the principal and is answered within two working days.