A word of context for anyone used to the British system: in Spain the architect writes the project, obtains the licence and supervises the works on site (dirección de obra), but the building itself is carried out by a separate registered contractor (constructora). The two roles are legally distinct, and they don’t always pull in the same direction.
In 2016, before starting the refurbishment of the Kids Club at Hotel Puente Romano in Marbella — a project we’d drawn with a good deal of care and, more than ever, wanted to see built exactly as designed — we had an honest conversation with ourselves:
“Our experience with building companies had been good, but we thought it could be better. The truth is that we didn’t share the same idea of a job well done. Communication wasn’t always as easy as we’d have liked, and there was a faint sense of pulling in opposite directions throughout. So for this job we decided to take on the contractor’s role ourselves.”
That meant that, on top of the project itself, we carried out the works: appointing and coordinating every trade on site, the logistics of materials, and the paperwork — financial, legal and administrative. We’d worked in a similar way on smaller jobs before, but this was a step up. We registered as contractors, and Klicstudio took charge of every line of the project. There were reasonable grounds to feel calm about it. On our team the management sits with Ruth Buján and Juan Goñi, both qualified professionals who have added training in economics and administration to the architecture — which helps with the parts of a building job that tend to be opaque.
As we said at the time, it went well: the job finished on schedule, there was no cost overrun, and what got built was what had been designed. The photographs of the finished space are worth a look.
Happy enough with the formula, we’ve used it again on further office projects and on home refurbishments.
Given the results, it occurred to us that we could offer the same to other architects. The reasons that pushed us into running our own jobs aren’t ours alone, so we now describe ourselves plainly: a contractor run by architects, for architects. The same experience that lets us manage our own sites efficiently, and to our own standards, is what we put on the table for anyone looking for a contractor they can rely on. Among other things, here’s what we offer:
- The most useful thing we can offer you is empathy — an unfashionable word on a building site, but the right one. We know what it is to draw a job and then care whether it gets built as drawn. We still do it, from our architecture practice in Málaga, with good results. Sharing the same idea of a job well done matters, and we can show a track record for it. We’re a team that answers the phone, and we think communication is the essential part.
- We control costs closely and work to a fixed price (precio cerrado), with the interest of the job in mind. We do our best to design out the surprise item: the line that was never priced at the start and turns up later as an extra because nobody thought it through.
- We coordinate a settled team of trades for each part of the works. People who are good at their job, and whom we don’t have to stand over.
- Our responsibility for your job is legal as well as moral, so the insurances are kept up to date. And, as above, we deal with the licence applications — planning permission (licencia de obras), which in Spain is a single municipal consent, and generally the tedious part.
- And if the thought crossing your mind is “these people want to take my client”, the answer is no. Before any contract we sign an agreement setting out what we can and cannot do, during the works and afterwards.
If you’re an architect with a job on the Costa del Sol and you’d rather not spend it arguing with your contractor, have a word with our team in Málaga. We’ll tell you straight whether we’re the right fit for it.
