Archive Design

My husband and I shortlisted a few IDs before deciding to proceed with Archive Design and Lucas . Really love the designs and the ideas that they proposed which is unique compared to other firms that we had shortlisted. Our project had a bit of slight delay as we are the unlucky batch to commence our renovation before the Circuit Breaker period. But Archive was reassuring to push through this period and the overall renovation experience was a positive one for us. We really like the workmanship that they have delivered, especially their carpentry work. During the process, I would say sometimes delayed response but I guess they are very overwhelmed but they did take the effort to reply us as soon as they can (sometimes even late at night) and I really appreciate it. They also did a slight discount for me as a goodwill for the inconvenience caused by the lack of manpower during the covid period. Overall, its a pleasant company to work with and really thanks to Rachel for the well management of our project and ability to deliver it with such good workmanship.

Hi there! Was following Qanvast and my designer Archive Design and saw they had been under fire lately for a few negative comments. Thought that I would leave a positive one as they had been really lovely and I know they tried their best even during the challenging period of post covid. They really had manpower issue, and they did told us that renovation is going to be almost snail paced. Which I believe it's an unhappy thing for most homeowner but there's no way it can be helped. However because I had to move out with my kids already as I already sold my home, I had to move into a partial done home, it was messy and tough to live in. They really did the best to help my family in any way they could. Eventually things improved and things were picking up and my home was completed, Yay!! They also waive off a some charges as a goodwill but I rejected and paid them, I think all business are going through a tough time and if I can pay it, I would. All in all, I think it is difficult sometimes for homeowners to keep to their contract because we tend to add on things to do, so of course there will be variation charges, as long as it is rated according to their contract, it should be reasonable. But really much thanks to Elaine especially for helping out in the end as I think Lucas was super busy with a lot of backlogs and logistics issues. Would love to meet them again soon !

This review shall be divided into 3 parts to give what I believe is a fair assessment of my project experience with Archive Design. 1. Facts 2. Experience 3. Personal Opinion 1. Facts of the Project A) I engaged Archive in July 2020 to renovate my father's home and Lucas promised that the project could be delivered in October 2020. The project only concluded in February 2021. (4 Months of delay) B) Every Instalment invoice was paid by me (the client) on the day of the invoice. (No delays in paying Archive) C) Project manager quit and left the project halfway. D) There were periods during the project where no works were done for up to a week. E) There was no point in time where Archive told me that the project completion had to be pushed back/no effort to update me on the progress unless I chased them. F) They did not give me any new expected completion date. I had to revise my own expectations twice for when the renovation works would finish. G) Contractors were smoking in the house and would ash their cigarettes and leave them in the house H) Contractors would use the toilet and stain the toilet bowl without cleaning up after themselves I) Lucas (Director) refused to answer and reply my calls and messages at the halfway mark of the project 2. Experience When I first engaged Archive Lucas was extremely friendly, helpful and pleasant to deal with. They were extremely fast in churning out designs for my consideration and we had very productive sessions about organizing the renovation. After I had paid for the first deposit they were still very fast to respond and start the works. The problems with Archive started about 2 months into the renovation works, the works started to slow down and even halt, there was no observable progress for days and Lucas and Elizabeth (my project manager who left half way) started to get more and more difficult to contact. In my group chat Elizabeth can take days sometimes to reply messages/give me updates on what was going on. To be fair to Archive, there was a miscommunication and misalignment on the budget expectations from the project and when I felt like the VO Works were getting too expensive for me to afford I requested for Lucas to have a session to sit down and rediscuss what I can pay for moving forward. It was at this point Lucas completely ghosted me and refused to answer calls/have a discussion. I will admit that it was my own fault for not scrutinizing the quotation to me, even though I had told Lucas what my maximum budget for the project was, that caused this misunderstanding. I immediately wanted to correct this but Lucas was totally MIA, he assigned Elizabeth to settle everything for the budget discussion. Elizabeth was clearly an inexperienced project manager and struggled to juggle the coordination for the project, she made many mistakes during the course of the works which translated to certain issues during the construction (such as forgetting the flooring type and making certain unnecessary changes (aircon relocation) due to her inexperience). Elizabeth was clearly juggling more than just my project and her incompetence resulted in a lot of my friction with Archive Design. To be fair to Archive again, there were mistakes on my part as well such as confirming certain changes (kitchen and living room flooring) and failing to correct Elizabeth in certain quotation works that also resulted in many issues of the construction, I was not the perfect client for sure but where it was reasonable that I was at fault I would openly admit it in the group chat and bear the responsibility of the costs involved. I was never given a proper project schedule by Archive and I suggest anyone considering to award your renovation works to them please make sure you get a detailed project schedule from Archive otherwise you will have an impossible time to keep them to their promised deadline. I finally forced Rachel to give me one towards what was supposed to be "the final month" of works. I paid Archive every instalment on time when Elaine requested it from me, they have absolutely no way of saying that they were unable to meet their committed deadline because of failure of my part to pay on time. I have to say that finally when Rachel took over the project after Elizabeth quit the company, I finally got a more responsive and proactive project manager. But too little too late, the workmanship was already degrading and flooring works had to be redone and skirting and trunking had many gaps that needed to be filled in. I had to bear a lot of costs to extend my storage for my things due to the extremely unreasonable relay. I am giving a 2 star review because I feel it is fair to the company as Rachel did try to come to make up for the failures of the previous project manager and Lucas. Rachel was also there when I found cigarettes on my boxes in the house and the dirtied toilet seat. It was also very obvious that Rachel was overloaded with work and at one point took two weeks to reply me in our group chat, even after I messaged politely everyday to check on the progress. To expedite the works and help with my over-expensed Budget I enlisted the help of another contractor who were able to come in and finish all carpentry works for the house in a month. Seeing thee contractors move so fast and produce quality work really showed me how stark the difference was between Aegro and Archive Design. All in all a very disappointing performance from Archive. 3. Opinion I am sure Lucas will reply to this review to give his "fair" opinion of what went wrong, which I more than welcome him. I am honestly very disappointed at this experience. I am not writing this review out of spite but in the hope that Lucas realizes that a company should not promise what it cannot deliver or bite off more than it can chew. I personally would not recommend Archive as it just seems like they are more interested to win clients than to produce good projects. The quality of the project management was really lackluster and the overall construction was very very poor. I hope this company has a turn around and live back up to the hype of their good reviews. I do not believe they are bad contractors, however, I do think they got complacent and dropped the ball.