How to Collaborate With Architects Without Losing Creative Control

The question of how interior designers and architects should interface with one another is fraught. Bad experiences on both sides can result in bitterness in both directions, and this can be the downfall of projects with so much potential. Creative control can be a poisoned chalice when so many brilliant minds are around the table. The truth is that the intersection of architecture and interior design is about more than just a meeting of disciplines over a client's threshold. It’s about genuine collaboration and respect for both parties.

What we have learned from talking to Clare Pascoe and Lolita Colenso, both interior designers, and Darren Price, a Design Director at ADAM Architecture, is that retaining creative control can be a balancing act, an art of playing to everyone’s strengths to make each project meaningful for everyone involved, not just the client. With mutual respect, early engagement, and shared purpose, the relationship doesn’t have to be a tug of war.

Darren Price

For Darren Price, creative cohesion is not about guarding turf, but cultivating meaning. “Building design is about more than a project’s aesthetics or functionality,” he says. “It’s about crafting buildings with meaning and purpose, spaces that resonate on a deeply human level.”

Price believes that when everyone involved is brought to the table early on, creative control becomes a shared practice rather than a tool to wield power over others. “Establishing collaborative working methods in the early stages of a project helps to ensure there’s a thread running through, from conception to completion,” he says. For Price, “there’s great value in working toward a shared vision.” He says, “adopting this more philosophical approach helps to build spaces that resonate both with the building’s occupants and the wider environment, breathing life into the project.”

Rather than segmenting roles into rigid silos, Price advocates for a holistic model where architects, interior designers, clients, and even investors are all embedded in the project’s DNA from day one. “Creating an environment where everyone is invested in the project’s success on a functional and emotional level results in far more dynamic working methods,” he says. “To ensure the project is delivered in the spirit of the brief, there needs to be an ethical or personal investment from all parties.”

Lolita Colenso

Brighton-based interior designer, Lolita Colenso, has worked alongside architects on all her projects and wouldn’t have it any other way. For her, “a true collaboration is where design becomes magical. Collaboration between the architect and interior designer is essential to creating a truly harmonious and creative design.”

Colenso’s books, retaining creative control doesn’t mean asserting dominance on a project. It means working with a great architect to fully understand the structure of the home or property that you're working within. “Design isn’t just about aesthetics,” she says, “it’s also about understanding the structural layout and the purpose of the space. A building must be strong enough to endure years of use, while the interior should fuse familiarity and magic to meet clients' needs.” For Colenso, when both the architect and the interior designer respect what the other brings to the table, “it’s like a match made in heaven.”

Clare Pascoe

For Clare Pascoe, founder of Pascoe Interiors, the key to creative freedom is trust, which is built through early involvement and open dialogue with the architects on her projects. “When an architect has the confidence that the interior designer’s work will complement and respect the architectural integrity of the project, there’s no need for creative control to be under threat,” she says.

For Pascoe, timing is crucial for developing a foundation of trust. “The interior designer needs to be instructed at the earliest opportunity,” she says. “That way, we can understand the thought processes behind key decisions and input interior ideas that align with the architectural vision at a stage when they can be seamlessly incorporated.”

How to Collaborate With Architects Without Losing Creative Control

Darren Price

Lolita Colenso

Clare Pascoe

Anya Cooklin-Lofting

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