I'm renovating my apartment in São Paulo and want to hire an architect, but I hate going back and forth to in-person meetings. Are there good tools to do all this online instead? What's the average price they charge for a project like this?
It's totally possible to do this remotely, and honestly a lot of people are doing it like that now. The basics are having good communication and documentation tools. I recommend using Google Meet or Zoom for meetings (way better than sitting in São Paulo traffic honestly), and then documenting everything through email or even a shared drive where you keep the floor plans, references, apartment photos. There are architects using SketchUp or even Revit to show the project in 3D during the video call, that way you can understand it way better than just looking at floor plan drawings. At the beginning you send photos of the space (from different angles really), the measurements, explain what you want, and the professional works from there. Most ask to do at least one in-person visit at the start to validate the measurements and really understand the space, but after that all the adjustments happen online.
As for price, it varies a lot, but for a renovation project in an apartment in São Paulo you're talking something like 3 to 8 thousand reais, depending on the complexity and whether it's just interior design or if you're also changing the structure. There are architects who charge per finished project, some who charge by the hour (like 150 to 300 reais an hour roughly), and some charge a percentage of the construction cost. My tip is to reach out to like 3 or 4 professionals, talk about your project scope, clear up whether they need to come in person and how many times, and then negotiate. A lot of them are flexible about doing everything remotely, especially in São Paulo where traffic is insane. The more detailed you can be with your requests from the start, the fewer meetings you'll need.
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