What to check before hiring an architect in Tbilisi
- Finished buildings of your type. A studio that has delivered your kind of project already knows the problems. Atelier Architects won the competition for the hotel on Gudiashvili Square and saw the square’s reconstruction completed in 2023, while MUA Architecture & Placemaking works for hotel brands such as Rotana.
- Engineering in the scope. Drawings need structure and building services before a contractor can price them. Shanidze Studio offers structural engineering, and ZROBIM architects designs heating, ventilation, water supply and sewage and checks them in a BIM model.
- Who runs the building work. Studio 9 and Spectrum manage construction themselves. ZROBIM architects lets you choose between full construction management and author’s supervision, where the architect checks that the contractor builds what was drawn.
- Stages and fees in writing. Ask for each design stage, what it delivers and what it costs before work starts. Architects of Invention works to RIBA Plan of Work stages 0 to 7, and ZROBIM’s online calculator gives a first estimate for a house before you meet.
Types of architecture firm in Tbilisi
Large practices carry a project from concept to handover. Spectrum has 80 full-time staff in six design teams and adds master planning and construction management, and Studio 9 has a team of more than 60 with urban planning and construction in the same firm.
Smaller studios are built around their founders. Khmaladze Architects works as a team of six led by Giorgi Khmaladze, and STIPFOLD, founded by Beka Pkhakadze, designs houses, interiors and furniture with computational and parametric tools.
Other firms have a clear focus. MUA Architecture & Placemaking designs medium and large hotels, offices and mixed-use buildings and has partnered with engineers such as Arup and Ramboll, Atelier Architects has shaped public parks and squares, and Medusa pairs architecture and interiors with furniture and lighting from its own showroom.
