Architects should stop being answerable to people who carry zero project liability.
Letâs be honest.
There are consultants who make the work better.
They challenge assumptions. They catch risks. They protect the client from blind spots. They make the architect sharper.
Every serious project needs those people.
But there is another type.
The so-called expert who sits between the client and the architect with endless opinions, vague authority, and almost no consequence.
They question the design direction. They reshape the brief. They delay decisions. They make the architect defend every move.
Then when the project gets delayed, diluted, confused, or overcomplicated, guess who gets blamed?
The architect.
Thatâs the quiet problem nobody talks about enough.
Someone can influence the direction of a building from the sidelines, yet the architect remains the one judged when the final work loses coherence.
Clients have every right to seek advice.
Good advice protects the project.
But advice needs structure. It needs scope. It needs accountability.
The client must know the difference between a real consultant who strengthens the work and a professional doubter who only makes uncertainty sound expensive.
