Frequently Asked Questions

As a full architectural and design studio, we offer complete design packages for custom homes, hospitality, retail, and commercial mixed-use projects. From the first steps through to permitting, construction drawings, interiors, and procurement, we help each client find bespoke solutions to their specific brief. Our team works through the full scope of architecture, interiors, and even procurement of art and furniture to ensure design solutions are cohesive and project-specific.

Anonymous Architecture is based in Calgary, Alberta, with a Vancouver field office serving British Columbia clients by appointment. We are registered with both the Alberta Association of Architects (AAA) and the Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC), allowing us to practise architecture across both provinces.

In Alberta, we serve Calgary and Edmonton, along with communities throughout the province. In British Columbia, we serve Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island including Victoria, Tofino, and Ucluelet, Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley, and Whistler and the Sea-to-Sky corridor. We currently have a project underway on Vancouver Island.

If your project is outside these areas but within Western Canada, get in touch. We assess projects on their merits and have worked with clients at a distance when the project is the right fit.

Our primary difference is rooted in the birth of the practice from a design + build modality. Very few firms have emerged from a studio that specializes in architecturally refined construction. We maintain a close collaborative role with bioi. design + build and benefit from a detailed operational understanding of construction, detailing, budget management, and project delivery. The vast majority of our clients have never built anything previously, and are comforted by our ability to bridge the gap between architecture and construction — regardless of the builder involved.

Our studio was born out of a design + build method of practice, and our team is highly adept at collaborating with builders. In Alberta, we routinely collaborate with our sister studio bioi. design + build, and many clients seek an integrated design + build approach. We have also routinely collaborated alongside independent builders, contractors, and trades. We're happy to recommend previous collaborators or work with your chosen team.

For a custom home or replacement dwelling, the design process from first meeting to a complete permit-ready drawing set typically takes four to six months. That timeline breaks down roughly as follows: two to four weeks of initial discovery and site analysis, four to eight weeks of schematic design where massing, layout, and design direction are established, six to eight weeks of design development where materials, details, and engineering coordination are resolved, and eight to twelve weeks of construction documents where the full permit and tender set is produced.

This timeline assumes a reasonably straightforward site and a client who can review and make decisions within normal turnaround windows. Complex sites, unusual regulatory requirements, or significant design changes mid-process can extend it. Major renovations tend to move slightly faster than new builds because the existing structure defines many of the constraints early. Multi-family projects generally take longer due to the additional coordination involved.

The honest answer is that the design process takes as long as it needs to in order to produce a building that is worth constructing. Rushing the design phase is the most reliably expensive decision a client can make — every unresolved question on paper becomes a more expensive question on site.

Architectural fees vary depending on the scope of the project, the services included, and the complexity of the site and brief. Residential projects are typically structured as a percentage of construction cost, while renovations and smaller scopes are sometimes offered as a fixed fee. Pre-design feasibility work — site analysis and zoning review before a project is committed — is generally available as a short fixed-fee engagement.

The more useful question is usually what you get for the fee, rather than the fee in isolation. An architect who stays involved from concept through construction completion provides a fundamentally different service than one who hands over drawings and steps back. For a detailed explanation of how architectural fees are structured in Western Canada and what to expect at different project scales, see our Field Notes guide to architect costs.

In Alberta and British Columbia, the title "architect" is legally protected. Only professionals registered with the Alberta Association of Architects (AAA) or the Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC) may call themselves architects or offer architectural services. Anonymous Architecture holds registration with both bodies.

Single-family homes in Alberta and BC fall under a residential exemption — a registered architect is not legally required for permit drawings on most detached houses. A qualified residential designer or draftsperson can prepare permit drawings for a standard new home without architectural involvement.

Whether you need an architect is a different question from whether you are legally required to hire one. An architect adds the most value on sites with constraints, projects with elevated design ambitions, or clients who want a building that is genuinely designed rather than adapted from a standard plan. If your project involves an unusual site, heritage considerations, complex zoning, or a level of material and spatial quality that a standard plan cannot deliver, a registered architect is the right choice. For multi-family or commercial projects, architectural stamps are typically required regardless of preference.

For a detailed comparison of the two options in Alberta and BC, see our Field Notes guide: Architect or Designer — what do you actually need?

The most useful things to bring to a first meeting are a realistic sense of your budget, a rough idea of your timeline, and any site information you have — the legal land description or address, any survey or title documents, and anything you know about zoning or previous permits. You do not need to have a design idea fully formed. That is our job.

It helps to have thought about how you want to live in the building: which spaces matter most to you, how you move through a home day-to-day, what you find lacking in your current home, and what you want to feel when you walk through the door. Images of buildings you admire — from any source — are useful not because we will copy them, but because they help us understand your sensibility quickly.

What you do not need to bring: a floor plan you have sketched out, a list of every room and its square footage, or a completed brief. These things often constrain the conversation before it has started. The first meeting is about understanding your project, your site, and your goals — not about locking in decisions. Come with questions. The quality of the conversation matters more than the completeness of your brief.

Yes. Construction administration is a core part of Anonymous Architecture's service, not an optional add-on. We remain actively involved throughout the construction phase, making regular site visits, reviewing shop drawings and material submittals, responding to contractor Requests for Information, and ensuring the built result matches the design intent.

This matters for several reasons. Construction is where design decisions are finally made physical, and the difference between a building that achieves its design intent and one that doesn't is almost always found in the quality of the construction administration. Details get simplified, materials get substituted, and dimensions get adjusted on every project. An architect who stays involved ensures that these changes are resolved in ways that preserve the design rather than compromising it.

Construction administration also protects the client's interests. We review contractor payment applications against work completed, flag non-conforming work, and provide the field presence to answer questions before they become expensive problems. On a custom home, this typically involves site visits every one to two weeks during active construction, increasing in frequency during critical phases like structural work, waterproofing, and finishing.

Principal-led design means that the lead architect — not a junior designer or project manager — is the primary design intelligence on every project from first meeting to construction completion. At Anonymous Architecture, the principal is directly involved in all design decisions, client meetings, and site reviews. You are not handed off to a team member after the initial consultation.

This is not the standard model at larger firms. In a typical mid-to-large architecture practice, a principal meets with prospective clients, signs the contract, and then delegates the project to designers and technologists who do the actual work. The principal may review drawings periodically, but the creative and technical decisions are made by people the client has never met.

The difference is visible in the built work. Principal-led projects tend to have greater coherence between the design intent and the finished building, because the person who understands the design at its deepest level is also the person resolving the details, responding to site conditions, and navigating the inevitable surprises of construction. For clients building something they intend to live in for decades, this continuity of design thinking is not a luxury — it is the fundamental service.