shetland

Many thanks for the insights.. its really helping to pinpoint the problems. I'm realising that concept sketches or drawings were the wrong words to use.. (in my field, any concept sketch is just hand-drawn in the meeting to give the client a visual as we talk). To be clear, I am not wanting anything that involves days of work! When i said 'concept sketches' I was thinking back-of-the-envolope scribbles with a 5 minute discussion, giving very broad strokes about what might work, what their initial instinct is to do. "perhaps we could open ~that~ wall and build ~this~ here." that sort of discussion. I hear of friends who chose their architects on them 'having such clever ideas for the ground floor layout' etc.. so this seemed like the normal way to proceed. (one of the architects we met was specifically recommended to us because of his clever solutions to a problem). If you were in my shoes, how would you decide between architects? I'm not giving them a design brief, i have a design problem and I'm requiring some idea that their skill will produce a good solution. should i be asking for a 5 minute broad-strokes concept, or is the only answer to buy a half day of jottings? thanks again!

Brand new member, unable to find a similar post about this but apologies if its there! In a nutshell, I'm asking whether we should be able to get idea/concept sketches or drawings from architects before they are contracted, as in our case, its their ideas for the house that will probably decide who we employ. We are right at the beginning of renovating our house; it has had some ridiculous extensions over the years (which probably need knocking down and replacing) and bizarre alterations inside that just need remedied, but its such an unusual layout and plot that we cannot even begin to come up with ideas on what to do. There must be dozens of different ways to adapt and/or extend the house as there is sizable garden space on 3 sides (not to mention the existing extensions that could be renovated, replaced as-is, or completely destroyed and an entirely new extension layout built). We decided that in this case, an architect would be required, simply to draw on their experience and visualisation skills/knowledge, and have them give us some ideas on redesign. this is the brief we have to present to architects.. I imagine its an architects worst nightmare. we have cash funds that will cover any work, and can comfortably remorgage to release more funds if the project was good enough. We met three architects in February who came recommended and all said they could come up with some ideas for us, but in fact all we have been sent are outlines of their fee structure. i had thought they would discuss some ideas on how to approach the renovation initially. Is this the normal way for engaging an architect, that you have to just get a 'feel' for them from their previous work etc and engage them with no idea what they can offer? Should we be able to ask for some ideas first, or do they protect these in case we just take the concepts and use someone else/self design etc? (or are they just not interested in the work and trying to put us off gently?) can anyone offer some insight, or a better way for us to approach this?! Many thanks if you can help.