Building a home in Costa Rica can be an exciting time. From determining the overall square footage to nailing down those final details, the right home can mark the beginning of an entirely new life phase.  

However, as exciting as the design process can be, it’s also an intricate operation requiring effective collaboration and coordination across several disciplines.  

In addition to your architectural designer, building a custom home in Costa Rica will require the expertise of many skilled professionals, including several engineering teams, such as structural, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC.  More complex projects may even include specialty engineering needs. 

Without seamless coordination of these design trades, transforming your dream home into a reality can present significant risks and challenges.  

To help you understand design trades coordination a little better, our team of experts is here to delve into the importance of design trades coordination and the difference it can make to your project.

In this article, you can expect to learn: 

• What design trades coordination is 
• If all architects offer design trades coordination services 
• The importance of design trades coordination for your Costa Rican home 
• SARCO’s approach to collaboration and exceptional design delivery 

Understanding Design Trades Coordination

So, what exactly is design trades coordination? In short, design trades coordination is the effective organization or coordination of multiple trades all working together on the same project during the design stage. 

The concept of design trades coordination revolves around ensuring the smooth collaboration of all professionals and tradespeople involved in the design of your Costa Rican home.  

Usually guided by one person acting as project coordinator, design trades coordination is about managing your project in a way that ensures all involved design parties are on the same page and working towards a common goal. 

In most cases, your architect will be the most qualified and experienced person to serve as the general project coordinator. This means that in addition to their personal design tasks, your architect’s primary responsibility is to ensure that the specific requirements of each trade are met and harmoniously integrated into your home’s final design. 

Some common tasks of your general project coordinator will include: 

• Establishing a cohesive plan that all parties can seamlessly work from 
• Performing project and design solutions analysis from the perspective of each engineering or design trade 
• Identifying and resolving conflicts between design trades that may arise 
• Ensuring the final version of each engineering team’s design and final plans are properly coordinated with the other engineering trades and with the architectural design—making sure that all possible conflicts are resolved before construction work begins 

Design Trades Coordination and Architect-Led Design-Build

As mentioned, design trades coordination focuses on effectively managing and coordinating the various professionals and tradespeople involved in your building project during the design stage. 

This approach encourages a shared vision and fosters collaboration amongst individuals who may be working together for the first time. 

Architect-led design-build is a method where a single company is responsible for both designing and building a project. This is usually achieved by integrating the design and construction teams, who work together as one cohesive unit from concept to completion.  

This method of project management makes decision-making easier by using the knowledge of in-house experts or trusted partners to inform design decisions from the beginning. 

Which Services Can SARCO Architects Offer?

At SARCO, we offer both architect-led design-build services and design trades coordination.  

We include design trades coordination as a mandatory part of our design process to help maintain control over your design. Our skilled architect will act as the project coordinator to align our team members and any third-party design contractors hired for the project.  

For us, this is such an essential piece of a properly designed project and this is why it simply is part of our workflow.  For SARCO Architects, doing Design Trades Coordination is essential for a properly designed project. 

For design-build projects, our construction teams will be based primarily on-site, managing your entire project and working collaboratively with our design team from start to finish. This is how we prefer to work on our high-end luxury home projects; however, there are situations where design-build isn’t applicable, or we may not offer it due to project size or location. 

Do All Architectural Firms Offer Design Trades Coordination?

We think true design coordination is essential to every project, and it is a mandatory part of our design process. 

However, the reality of our local market is that almost no architectural firms perform Design Trades Coordination.  

Some are not proficient enough in the technical aspects of construction to do it. Many other firms offer one main value proposition: offering a lower fee cost.  

If someone is offering a design and drawings package at a low price, there is no opportunity for a highly skilled professional to manage the coordination due to lack of time and effort.  

Some offices send the plans’ production to a third-party office instead of using their own staff. This can be even worse. How can they do design coordination without their own design development and production staff? 

They might say (or even think) that they are doing design trades coordination, but in reality, they are just sharing documents with engineering teams, and letting them do their designs.  

This lax approach can result in a ton of important details slipping through the cracks.  

Without a proper review comparing the design work of one team vs. another, you could end up with air-conditioning ducting clashing with structural elements that cannot be moved or opened to let the ducting through.  Or you could end up with too much piping going through a single area significantly weakening the integrity of main structural elements, without the knowledge of the responsible engineer. 

True design trades coordination relies heavily on your architect having a high level of experience in construction.  

These are typically huge problems that simply end up coming up during construction and someone needs to resolve them.  However, the problem is that once you’re halfway through construction and suddenly a big issue comes up, typically it is too late to come up with a proper solution.  

The ways to resolve the matter end up being quick fixes or solutions with limited options, and far from what could have been the ideal solution, if the issue had been caught on time (at the design phase). 

How Do We Know Other Firms Do Not Offer Design Trades Coordination?

A couple of years ago, our lead architect, Roderick Anderson, was invited to be a part of the directors of the BIM Forum Costa Rica chapter from the Costa Rican Chamber of Construction.  

As part of his involvement in this organization, he was positively surprised that the largest construction companies in the country were getting involved in the world of BIM.  He was amazed at how strongly they were investing in their BIM teams. The problem was the reason they were doing it. 

As some of the representatives of those construction companies explained, they were being forced to learn and build BIM-proficient teams in-house.  

The main reason for this is that when they would receive plans for a project, they would get their own teams to build a BIM model where they could visualize the different elements and systems of a project together on a single model.  They would take the plans that were provided to them by the designers, and build their own model in order to find clashes, errors, and incorrect construction.  

They wanted to be able to iron out the problems before the construction started.  They wanted to avoid inefficiencies and delays. 

They were surprised when Roderick showed them examples of SARCO projects and explained that these tasks and processes had already been completed. The way that SARCO approaches this is simple: Design Trades Coordination is a responsibility of the design team, NOT of the builder. 

The Importance of Design Trades Coordination for Your Home in Costa Rica

When it comes to Costa Rica real estate, it’s easy to see the appeal of having your own home in such a beautiful location. Especially when building a luxury or custom home in Costa Rica, the options seem limitless. From wraparound balconies and infinity pools to natural light from every angle, building new construction in Costa Rica is undoubtedly a great choice for an investment property, a vacation home, or even a full-time life shift. 

Design trades coordination during the design phase is crucial for the success of your home build project.  

With clear communication and efficient collaboration between engineering teams, and with an architectural firm with expertise in design and construction capable of properly performing the essential coordination between design teams, it becomes easier for all team members to envision the final project and deliver the result you want.

Additionally, when a lack of clarity exists during the design phases, potential issues can arise in relation to: 

• Accountability 
• Cost overruns 
• Wasted resources on labour and materials 
• Budget problems 
• Labor costs 
• Timeline and efficiency 
• Construction mistakes due to improper design coordination 
• Safety 
• Long-term quality 
• Property limit complications 

At its core, effective design trades coordination establishes a solid foundation for the seamless execution of your dream home in Costa Rica. With better cohesion across the design phase, your design requirements can not only be met — they can be elevated. 

Learn how your architectural team works before hiring them to manage your expectations as a client and ensure you have the right people to deliver the structure you want. To avoid getting told that the coordination is done, when in reality it isn’t, ask to be shown the systems in place and the workflow between design teams in order to perform the coordination. 

SARCO’s Proven Approach to Design Trades Coordination in Costa Rica

At SARCO, our in-house team of multidisciplinary experts and extensive experience in architect-led design-build is what has earned us our reputation for seamless collaboration on every project. That said, through our years of experience, we’ve also learned to handle external design engineering teams and consultants with the same level of cohesion and care. 

This is why when it comes to design trades coordination, we possess the expertise, knowledge, and application of systems and technology needed to ensure all trades involved in your project are managed in a way that brings your dream home to life. 

Working with third-party entities in the same way we would manage our own in-house team, your project couldn’t be in better hands — to make sure that once you break ground and undergo construction, your project can go smoothly and that coordination issues have been properly resolved. 

The SARCO Approach: Open Communication, Regular Meetings, and a Strong Emphasis on Integration

As project coordinators, it’s our priority to ensure alignment across the design phase players and establish a form of communication we know each trade can grasp. This is why at SARCO, our take on design trades coordination revolves around open communication, regular reviews, and a strong emphasis on integrating design updates effectively.  

We prefer to partner with professionals well-versed in Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology to ensure a comprehensive understanding of your project’s scope and additionally, leverage open standards with design review and coordination software to facilitate efficient information exchange, e.g., Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format.  

We use our experience in construction and design to carefully study design models from each engineering team, and ensure the final design solutions from each engineering team all properly work together for a single, cohesive, and properly resolved project.  

At SARCO, we leave nothing to chance because we recognize the value of genuine design trades coordination in bringing your project to life. 

Ready for SARCO to Take Control of Your Project?

As this article discusses, design trades coordination plays a vital role in achieving your dream home design in Costa Rica. Effective coordination among professionals and consultants ensures a more seamless design journey, something every custom home build should aim for. 

By choosing an experienced architectural firm with a profound understanding of each trade, long-standing experience in construction, and a proven track record in design trades coordination, you can ensure your home project is a total success! 

If you want to know more about our approach to project delivery, call 1-646-712-9299  or click here to schedule one of our Next Steps Calls to find out how we can help you.  

At SARCO, we are committed to delivering the highest level of coordination and collaboration, transforming your dream home in Costa Rica into an extraordinary reality.