How architecture and interiors are coordinated
Architecture and interior design are coordinated by fixing, for each interior decision, the construction stage after which it can no longer be reversed: before the structure, before the slab, before walls are closed and before ceilings. If the kitchen, lighting or wardrobes are decided after that point, finished work gets redone or the idea is dropped.
In a new house this matters more than in a flat, because the interior can influence facade openings, ceiling heights, floor levels and service routes. That is why interior design starts in parallel with the outline design, not once the house already has partitions.
Before the structure: what affects openings and loads
Some interior decisions the structure must know about: a double-height living room, a skylight over the stairs, a freestanding stone bath, a solid kitchen island, a floor-to-ceiling library, a home lift. All of them involve loads, openings in slabs or beams that are sized in the structural calculation.
Facade openings too: a window's size and position are best decided knowing which piece of furniture, bed or table will stand in front of it and which view it should frame. Moving a window on the drawing takes an afternoon; moving it once the structure is built is a design change.
Before the slab: levels, drains and underfloor heating
Floor finishes have different thicknesses: 2 cm stone on its mortar bed does not take up the same depth as parquet on battens. If you want a step-free transition between living room, kitchen and terrace, each finish's level is defined before the slab is laid, along with the insulation and underfloor heating beneath it.
This is also when level-access shower drains go in, the kitchen island drain if it has a sink, and the conduits for floor sockets under a central sofa or dining table. All of this comes from the furniture plan; without it, the slab is laid blind.
Before walls are closed: the furniture plan rules
With walls still open, electrics, data, plumbing and climate systems are routed. The right routing depends on where the bed and bedside tables go, the TV, the kitchen appliances with their model numbers, the wardrobes and the artworks that need lighting. A socket behind a bespoke wardrobe or a switch hidden behind an open door are coordination errors, not workmanship errors.
This is also when concealed-door subframes go in, along with backing for wall-hung furniture or basins, shutter boxes and recesses for concealed curtain tracks. The children's psychology centre we delivered in the Eixample in 2026 had 24 concealed doors: each one requires the partition, the subframe and the finish to be designed together from the start.
Ceilings: where ducts and lighting meet
The false ceiling is where the most disciplines compete: heat-recovery ventilation ducts, climate units, recessed lights, linear profiles, curtain tracks, speakers. If each trade installs its own part without a shared ceiling plan, you get unplanned bulkheads and spotlights that do not land where they should.
A coordinated ceiling plan, with heights and the position of every element, is finalised before the ceiling framework goes up. In that same psychology centre, the heat-recovery climate system was designed together with the ceilings; in a house with more generous heights, the logic is the same.
One drawing set and every decision in writing
The whole team, architect, interior designer, structural engineer, installers and joiner, must work from the same drawing revision. A piece of joinery designed on an older version may clash with a door or a duct. Define where current documents are kept, how revisions are numbered and who sends them to each trade.
Every meeting ends with decisions made, who is responsible and what is still pending from the client. Before building, check that an approved solution appears both in the drawings and in the current budget; if it is only in an email, on site it does not exist.
How we do it
In the house with a pool we built between 2022 and 2024, a full-cycle project with solar panels, the house, pool, garden and interior were planned as one project. A single site manager coordinates all the trades and talks to you in Russian or Spanish. If you are starting the design of your house, send us what you have; we reply within an hour.