Episode Details

Most builds get into trouble long before anyone picks up a hammer. They get into trouble in the design.

In this episode of The Good Builder, Az sits down with Vicky Cutler, a registered architect across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria with more than twenty years in residential design, and the founder and director of Cutler and Co.

Her argument is simple. The builder should be in the room from the start, not handed a finished set of drawings and asked to price them.

Vicky makes the case against tendering and for collaboration from inception. Get a builder involved early, get a real cost breakdown, and design something that can actually be built to budget. She explains where the old tension between architects and builders comes from, how it cracks open on site, and why most of it traces back to working in isolation and ego.

The conversation covers the early decisions that quietly cost builders later, from construction method to site access. It covers the render that looks the part but cannot be built, and what that does to a client's trust. And it covers the practical side most builders overlook, including charging for time in the early stage like any other consultant.

For builders, trades and suppliers, the takeaway is direct. A good designer alongside you does not add cost. It takes a large share of the stress, the rework and the risk off the table.

Vicky also shares what she is building now, from commercial work across the coast to a boutique resort in Sri Lanka, and what a real working partnership between a builder and an architect looks like when both leave the ego at the door.

Show notes

Most builds get into trouble long before anyone picks up a hammer. They get into trouble in the design.

Az sits down with Vicky Cutler, registered architect across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria with more than twenty years in residential design, and the founder and director of Cutler and Co. Her case is simple: the builder belongs in the room from the start, not handed a finished set of drawings and asked to price them.

What we get into:

• Why working in isolation is the root of most builder and architect tension
• The argument against tendering, and what to do instead
• The early decisions that quietly cost builders later, from construction method to site access
• The render that looks the part but cannot be built, and what it does to client trust
• Why builders should charge for their time in the early stage like any other consultant
• How a good designer can take a large share of the stress, rework and risk off the table
• The state of women in construction, and why Queensland needs to lift its game
• What Vicky believes makes a good builder

Chapters

00:00 Why the builder and the designer need to meet
 01:52 Meet Vicky Cutler and Cutler and Co
 03:47 Residential vs commercial: designing for how people live
 07:12 What architects really do beyond the drawings
 14:34 The early decisions that quietly cost builders later
 17:30 Where the architect and builder tension comes from
 19:19 The case against tendering
 21:49 Why builders should charge for their early stage time
 27:51 Renders that sell vs renders you can build
 36:13 How a good designer takes the stress out of a build
 43:00 Leaving the ego at the door
 50:45 Women in construction and lifting Queensland's game
 1:01:45 What makes a good builder

Guest: Vicky Cutler, Founder and Director, Cutler and Co
https://cutlerco.com.au/

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