Building and architecture professions have evolved tremendously over the last century (Lewis, 87). The market demands a lot from builders and architects. Building industry has evolved due to high requirements for high quality and uniquely designed buildings. Technology has also increased the need for builders and architects to embrace innovation and improve methods of building (Lewis, 101). Over the past few years, builders have impeded the architecture profession by taking jobs from the architects (Lewis, 94). Business organizations and individuals now prefer builders than architects.
Aspects like costs and flexibility among others have led to the shift of preference from architects to builders in this era. This change in the industry has reduced the need for intermediaries in the industry thus allowing people to negotiate directly with builders. They do not have to go through intermediaries, as it is the case with architects. Builders are now able to receive contracts that only architects could receive in the past. This saves time and resources. However, it also affects architects and intermediaries negatively by reducing business opportunities. Every decision has both negative and positive impacts. There are benefits and challenges of using either builders or architects. This paper evaluates critically the opportunities and challenges of using builders and architects to the customers. It conducts a detailed comparison and contrast of using builders and architects by giving advantages and disadvantages of each.
Builders are cheaper as compared to architects (Kara, 134). They charge cheaper prices for their services. This is one of the reasons why builders have become very popular in the industry. Experienced builders offer qualitative services just like professional architects (Lewis, 391). Therefore, most people prefer to use them because they will get high quality services at a cheaper price.