Our Integrated Approach
ARCHITECTURE & INTERIOR DESIGN:
AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH
You’ve long dreamt of building your forever home, and now you’re at the brink of starting your project. You know you need a visionary architect, a talented designer, and a smart builder to bring your new home to life—and you might assume that just having those three disciplines available to you means your project will run smoothly.
But how the professionals work together matters.
At Collective, we’ve created a streamlined approach that integrates architecture and design right from the beginning. “When people begin a home-building project, they typically start with the architect,” says lead Design Director Lisa Yates. “But with a designer at the table, we can begin helping you personalize spaces right away. We help you think about how a room will function: Do you want big sofas for lounging and/or small intimate spaces for conversation? That affects the space planning. Do you want a specific wall to be stone? Let’s show it that way right from the start so you can begin to envision your home.”
Principal Architect Zane Levin agrees. “Architecture takes the big-picture approach,” he says. “We paint with a broader brush, while our interiors colleagues give a more detailed focus. To tag-team brings our clients a lot of benefits”—such as…
Cohesive design: “When you separate architecture and interior design, you can end up with a home that feels disjointed,” Zane says. But integrating the two from the first meeting, clients’ priorities and vision go into every single decision—from big-picture questions about room sizes and lot orientation to details like kitchen-cabinet material and bed sizes in each guest room. The result: a home that fulfills the client’s wishes for style and functionality.
More efficient timelines: Zane characterizes how the old home-design model works: After the drawings were mostly complete, the interior designer and client would meet to decide that the fireplace should be stone. The designer emails the architect, who responds within a day or two and says he needs to check with the engineer. The engineer responds another day or two with information about what the contractor needs to do to support stone installation. “One decision can take three or four days to finalize,” Zane says. “With our model, we can get through such decisions in a matter of hours, not days”—which saves our clients’ time.
What’s more, with integrated design, the team at Collective can combat material delays. “We know what we need on the front end, and details are dialed-in before the builder even breaks ground,” Lisa says. “You’re not waiting for walls to go up before you choose your fixtures, finishes, and furnishings.”
A better overall experience: “It’s enjoyable for everyone to have all of the experts around the table,” Zane says. Because Collective’s team is all housed under one roof, just down the hall from one another, we collaborate easily, brainstorming solutions and ideas to create beautiful and custom spaces for each client. “I love creating beautiful spaces,” he adds. “A large component of that is interior design. I don’t see architecture and interiors as two separate disciplines; they’re just two parts of the collective whole.”
Collective’s architecture and design teams also welcome the opportunity to work with outside architects and designers. We’re always eager to start early on a project to bring our integrated approach to design for the benefit of each client!
