The practical difference between an architect, a building designer and a design-and-build builder is not drawing quality. It is who owns the design risk, who owns the price, and when those two things get tied together. An architect is engaged as an independent consultant, designs the building and can administer the building contract on your behalf. A building designer holds a QBCC building design licence and produces plans and specifications within a scope QBCC defines, usually at a lower fee and with less contract involvement. A design-and-build builder carries the design and the construction under one accountable party, so buildability and price are tested while the drawings are still moving rather than after tenders come back. We work all three ways on the Sunshine Coast, and the right answer depends on how unusual your site is, how fixed your budget is, and how much coordination you want to do yourself.
What each of the three actually is
An architect is a registered professional, and that registration sits outside the building work licensing system. QBCC’s list of available licences covers design classes, builder classes, trade contractor classes and inspector classes, and architect is not among them — architects are registered under the Architects Act 2002 (Qld) by the Board of Architects of Queensland, which is also what controls who may use the title. So when you check an architect’s credentials you are checking a register QBCC does not hold. Architects are trained in spatial design, documentation and contract administration, and on a difficult brief that training shows.
A building designer is licensed by the QBCC, and there are three classes. QBCC states that a Building design — low rise licence allows the holder to “prepare plans and specifications for a class 1 or class 10 building”, and to “prepare plans and specifications for classes 2 to 9 buildings with a gross floor area of not more than 2000m², but not including Type A or Type B construction”. Building design — medium rise covers, in QBCC’s words, “buildings to a maximum of three storeys above a storey used for the parking of vehicles but not including a Type A construction other than class 2, 3, or 9 buildings”, and Building design — open covers “buildings of any height or floor area”. Under the National Construction Code a detached house is a class 1 building, and a shed, carport or swimming pool is class 10, so a low rise licence covers almost every residential job on the Sunshine Coast.
Two things about building designers are worth knowing before you engage one. First, QBCC lists building designer among the contractor licence classes that must hold professional indemnity insurance, and points to the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (Minimum Financial Requirements) Regulation 2018 for the minimum amounts. Ask for the certificate of currency. Second, the building design scopes include “contract administration in relation to building work designed by the licensee” — so a designer can run the contract, but only for work they designed.
A design-and-build builder is a QBCC-licensed contractor who takes a project from concept through to handover under one agreement. Roebuck Concepts holds QBCC company licence 15280811, and Tom Roebuck holds individual licence 15015060. Before you sign with anyone in any of the three roles, check the licence — our guide on how to check a QBCC licence shows you where to look and what a condition or a past directions notice means.
Three-way responsibility and cost comparison
| Question | Architect | Building designer | Design-and-build builder |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who regulates them | Board of Architects of Queensland, under the Architects Act 2002 (Qld). Architect is not one of QBCC’s licence classes. | QBCC, under Building design — low rise, medium rise or open. | QBCC contractor (builder) licence. |
| What they may design | Set by their registration and their own expertise, not by a QBCC scope. | Low rise: class 1 and class 10, plus classes 2 to 9 up to 2000m² excluding Type A and Type B construction. Medium rise: to three storeys above a parking storey, excluding Type A construction other than class 2, 3 or 9 buildings. Open: any height or floor area. | Builds to whatever documentation exists. Design is produced in-house or by an engaged architect or designer. |
| Professional indemnity insurance | Carried under their own registration. Ask for the certificate. | Compulsory. QBCC lists building designer among the licence classes required to hold PI insurance. | Not required for a general builder contractor licence. QBCC’s PI list names builder—project management services, not the builder classes used to construct a house. The builder’s exposure sits in the contract and the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme. |
| Who prices the build | Nobody, until documentation goes to tender. | Nobody, until documentation goes to tender. | The builder, progressively, as the design develops. |
| When you get a price you can act on | After full documentation and a tender period. | After documentation and a tender period. | Earlier — an indicative range at concept, tightened as selections and engineering land. |
| Who administers the contract | The architect can act as contract administrator on your behalf. | QBCC scope allows “contract administration in relation to building work designed by the licensee”. | You and the builder deal directly. No third party in between. |
| Who holds home warranty cover | Not the architect. | Not the designer. | The contractor. QBCC states cover is required for most residential building work valued at more than $3,300 and that the contractor pays the premium. |
| Who fixes defects | Not the architect, unless the fault is a documentation error. | Not the designer, unless the fault is a documentation error. | The builder, under the contract and the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme. |
| How you pay for design | Fee for service, normally staged by design phase. | Fee for service, often fixed per stage. | Commonly a paid preliminary agreement covering design, engineering and pricing. Get the treatment of that fee in writing. |
| Main cost risk to you | A resolved design nobody has priced, so tenders return over budget and you redesign. | Documentation thin enough that trades price assumptions, which resurfaces as variations. | Less competitive tension on the build rate, so you have to test the builder’s openness on costs. |
Where the money actually moves
The design fee is rarely the number that decides your budget. What decides it is how much of the building is genuinely resolved before a trade prices it. Thin documentation does not save money; it moves money into variations, and a variation is a poor way to buy anything, because by the time you are agreeing one there is no competitive tension left in the price.
Queensland law is specific here. QBCC states you need a written contract for domestic building work priced over $3,300 including labour, materials and GST, and splits renovation, extension and routine repair work on existing homes into a Level 1 contract for $3,301 to $19,999 and a Level 2 contract for $20,000 and over. Once you are under contract, QBCC states that before variation work starts the variation must be presented to the home owner in writing and agreed to in writing, that you must be given a copy before the earlier of the variation work starting or five business days from when both parties agreed to it, and that a contractor “cannot require payment for a variation before the variation work is started”. Those rules protect you, but they do not make variations cheap. We cover the mechanics in building contract variations in QLD and how a price gets locked down in fixed price building contracts.
This is the honest argument for design-and-build: a builder pricing alongside the designer catches the expensive idea while it is still a line on a drawing. It is also the honest argument against it, because you lose the tender comparison. If you take that route, ask for the trade-by-trade breakdown, not just a headline figure.
Who carries risk once you are on site
People often assume the certifier is watching the build for them. QBCC’s guidance on the role and responsibilities of a certifier is that they carry out building assessment work and give a compliance certificate stating that building work complies with the building assessment provisions, assessed against the Building Code of Australia and the Queensland Development Code. The same guidance says a certifier does not “design the building or structure or carry out any of the building work”, does not “supervise the job site”, does not “ensure a builder is complying with their contract”, and does not take responsibility for “quality control and material finishes”. Compliance and quality are different things, and only the builder is accountable for the second.
The Queensland Home Warranty Scheme also sits with the contractor. QBCC states cover is required for most residential building work valued at more than $3,300 including materials, labour and GST, that the contractor pays the premium, and that a policy covers a maximum of $200,000. QBCC states the work is covered for six years and six months from whichever is earlier of the day you pay the premium, the day you agree to a contract, or the day work starts. QBCC also sets the claim windows: for a structural defect you must first become aware of it within that six years and six months and make the claim within three months after the day you first become aware of it, while for a non-structural defect you must first become aware of it within six months after the day the work is substantially complete and make the claim within seven months of that day. Diarise those dates. There is more detail in our guide to defects liability and warranty in QLD.
Responsibility by stage
| Stage | Architect route | Building designer route | Design-and-build route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concept and site analysis | Architect, engaged directly by you. | Designer, engaged directly by you. | Builder, with the architect or designer they bring in. |
| Planning approval where required | Architect, usually with a town planner. | Designer, usually with a town planner. | Builder coordinates the consultant team. |
| Building approval | You appoint a private certifier. Noosa Shire Council states you can obtain a development approval from a private building certifier, and that a building application requiring a variation to the requirements of the Queensland Development Code or the local planning scheme must be submitted to Council before the certifier grants approval. | Same, and the designer usually lodges. | Builder appoints and manages the certifier. |
| Pricing and contract | Tender, then the architect can administer the contract. | Tender. The designer may administer, within their QBCC scope. | Priced in-house and contracted directly with you. |
| Construction and defects | Builder, with the architect inspecting on your behalf. | Builder. Inspection depends on what you paid for. | Builder. One party to call. |
Which planning scheme applies to your block
Whichever route you choose, someone has to read the planning scheme before the design goes far. Sunshine Coast Council states that the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2014 “sets the framework to manage growth and development on the Sunshine Coast” and regulates the way land, buildings and structures are used and developed, and that the scheme was adopted on 14 April 2014 and took effect on 21 May 2014, with amendments made since. North of the shire boundary you are under Noosa Shire Council and the Noosa Plan 2020 applies instead.
That matters to your choice of design route, because a site with a planning constraint — a height or setback issue, an overlay, a lot that does not sit comfortably in its zone — is a site where design decisions and approval risk are tangled together. That is the kind of job where either an experienced architect or an early builder conversation earns its fee, because the alternative is a resolved design that has to be pulled apart at assessment.
How we work with designers on the Sunshine Coast
Roebuck Concepts is not trying to replace architects. We build alongside them, and we have named design partners we work with regularly — K Architecture and Reitsma & Associates. On an architect-led job we come in early to price and test buildability while the design can still move, then build it. On a design-and-build job we lead the process and bring in the design capability the project needs.
The Memorial Avenue project at Cotton Tree shows design and construction run in step on a constrained coastal site — the detail is on the Memorial Avenue, Cotton Tree page. Our Grandview Drive project at Coolum Beach took three awards at the Master Builders Queensland 2025 Sunshine Coast Housing and Construction Awards, presented on 15 August 2025 at The Events Centre, Caloundra: Home Renovation/Remodelling Project over $1 million, Best Residential Swimming Pool, and Best Use of Innovation. That job needed the design team and the site team in the same conversation from day one, which is the whole point.
If you are weighing up how bespoke to go, read custom build vs project home, and see how we structure the process on our custom build page.
How to choose
- Choose an architect when the site is genuinely difficult — steep, flood-affected, heritage-adjacent, narrow, or with a view that has to be earned — or when the brief is unusual and the design outcome matters more to you than the last few per cent of the budget.
- Choose a building designer when the house is conventional in form, the block is straightforward, and you want competent, compliant documentation without a full architectural service. Confirm the licence class covers your building and that the PI insurance is current.
- Choose design-and-build when you want one contract, one accountable party, and pricing feedback while the design can still change cheaply — and when you are willing to interrogate the builder’s costs instead of relying on a tender to do it for you.
Whichever way you go, the licence check and the written contract are non-negotiable. Everything else is preference. If you want to talk it through before you commit to a design route, call us on 0477 333 386 or come and see us at Unit 1/18 Lomandra Place, Coolum Beach.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an architect to build a house in Queensland?
No. A QBCC-licensed building designer can prepare plans and specifications for a class 1 dwelling under a Building design — low rise licence, and a licensed builder can construct from them. An architect is a choice you make for design outcome and independent contract administration, not a legal requirement for a house.
Is a building designer cheaper than an architect?
Design fees are usually lower, but total project cost is driven by documentation depth rather than the design fee. Under-documented work gets priced with assumptions by trades, and those assumptions resurface as variations — and QBCC’s rules mean each variation has to be presented in writing and agreed to in writing before the variation work starts, which costs time as well as money.
Can a building designer run my building contract?
Within limits. QBCC’s building design scopes include “contract administration in relation to building work designed by the licensee”, so a designer can administer a contract for work they designed, but not for someone else’s design.
Does the certifier check the quality of the building work?
No. QBCC’s guidance is that a certifier carries out building assessment work against the building assessment provisions, and that a certifier does not supervise the job site, does not ensure a builder is complying with their contract, and does not take responsibility for quality control and material finishes. Quality sits with your builder.
Who pays for QBCC home warranty insurance?
The contractor. QBCC states cover is required for most residential building work valued at more than $3,300 including materials, labour and GST, and that the contractor pays the premium. QBCC also states home owners can buy optional additional cover within certain time frames, and that the home owner pays for that additional cover.
Can I get a builder involved before the design is finished?
Yes, and on a tight budget you should. Early builder involvement prices the concept while it can still be changed cheaply. See how to choose a builder in Queensland for what to ask when you bring one in early.