I want to build my house. Where do I begin?

After several months of blogging, thank you very much! We are receiving dozens of emails congratulating us on how useful the information we share is proving to be, and encouraging us to continue.

Every day we try to learn about your questions so we can clarify them for you, and today we aim to do so with a very common question for anyone thinking about building an eco-friendly home.

Where do we begin?

Some time ago, we realized that most of our clients are young families, either with children or planning to have them in the medium term, and with a certain cultural level. These couples usually understand that buying or building a house is a lifelong decision, and they thoroughly research all options before deciding between buying or building a home.

After a little research, they often realize that building a house is a viable option, and compared to buying an apartment in a city center, it can even be an economical choice that allows them to build a home tailored to their needs.

People interested in building an eco-friendly home often don’t know where to start. This is very common; construction is complex, and for most people, taking the step to build their own home feels overwhelming. There are many doubts, and one needs a certain entrepreneurial spirit to get started.

When a new client comes to our studio, we immediately begin a process that we have refined over time. Since we have experienced many similar cases, I thought it would be interesting to share it on the blog so that those of you who don’t know where to start can have clearer ideas.

Building My Eco-Friendly Home in 3 Steps

Truth be told, it sounds like an anti-aging cream advertisement, but in this studio, we advocate simplifying even the most complex processes, such as building an eco-friendly home—a project to which we will dedicate about two years of our lives.

It’s important not to alter the order!

It is important to always start with a visit to the architect before the builder. This will save us headaches, as builders will only discuss prices, not architecture, lifestyle, or very likely, sustainability.

If we start by visiting the builder without a project or cost estimate from an architect, the builder will recommend their preferred architect, who is completely subservient to their orders and therefore will not defend our interests as clients.

If we want to build our house with certain guarantees, it is important that the architect is always on our side and is completely independent and impartial regarding the builder, in order to negotiate and control the entire house construction process.

Thus, one should also not trust architects who sell a house + construction package. It is always essential that the architect is impartial and can negotiate construction prices with the client.

In Detail: Building My Home in 3 Steps

Well, how are these 3 steps put into practice?

At our firm, when a new client arrives with the firm idea of building their home, we start by searching for plots of land. Based on the budget and location you provide, we conduct research in the area through both private sellers (online) and with the help of real estate agency databases—always without commissions involved to ensure complete negotiation freedom!

With the initial land proposals, we organize a first meeting at our office to assess the project’s viability and, of course, to get to know each other. We also usually visit the plot with our clients before they make a purchase decision, as important details such as sun exposure, water drainage slopes, the terrain’s own slope, the subsoil, etc., can sometimes be overlooked.

If you are in the process of searching for a plot of land, we recommend that you read our post discussing the aspects to consider before buying land.

Continuing with our process. If the client cannot come to our office, we travel to them or send one of our collaborators. We are based in Barcelona and cover all of Catalonia, but we also have clients in the Balearic Islands, where we travel regularly, and in Madrid, we have ecological architect collaborators who handle clients in that area, working on projects jointly. If you are further away, contact us to find out if we have a collaborator in your area.

Initiating an eco-friendly home construction project is a process that lasts 1 to 2 years, and it is important that in the initial meetings we fully understand what type of home aligns with your needs (as there are many variables within ecological construction). Also, in the first meeting, you will meet the entire team at our firm, and we will explain how we work and how we understand architecture, not only from an ecological perspective but also from the perspective of human health.

Finding the ideal plot of land will involve several months of back-and-forth, visits, etc. We will evaluate prices, but also legal, urban planning, and construction viability issues.

Once we have the plot, the housing project will be custom-designed in our studio in close collaboration with the client. As some of you may have seen, we have a base design called Slow Home, which is a minimal dwelling we designed a few years ago for clients and serves as a basis for adjusting prices. However, as architects, we, of course, customize each new project to the needs of each new client.

Finally, the most complex step, construction. We always stand on the client’s side, meaning we have no commission or agreement with any builder. This allows us to compare different offers and adjust prices as much as possible, maintaining control of the work at all times and always defending our client’s interests.