Interior Designer vs. Architect: Who Do You Need for a Hangar Home?

If you're beginning to plan a hangar home, one of the first questions you may run into is surprisingly simple:

Who do I call first an architect or an interior designer?

And shortly after that usually comes another question: If I already have an architect, why would I need an interior designer this early?

The answer is that these professionals aren't interchangeable, and on a well-planned hangar home, you may benefit from having both involved.

An architect and an interior designer look at the same project through different lenses. Your architect is thinking about the building, structure, site, code requirements, exterior architecture, and the technical documentation required to construct it. Your interior designer is looking deeply at how you're going to live inside that architecture: how rooms function, how furniture fits, where things are stored, how you move through the house, how lighting supports the space, what you see from one room to another, and how hundreds of interior decisions ultimately work together.

For a hangar home, there's another layer.

We're also thinking about the airplane, the hangar, the taxiway, how you transition between flying and being home, what happens on a Saturday when the hangar door stays open all afternoon, and how the aviation side of your life connects to the residential side.

That's why the conversation shouldn't really be architect versus interior designer.

It's about understanding what each professional brings to the project and getting the right people involved before important decisions become expensive to change.

What Does an Architect Do on a Hangar Home?

Your architect is responsible for the architecture of the building.

Depending on the project, location, and scope, that can include site planning, building form, structural coordination, exterior elevations, code considerations, life-safety requirements, construction documents, permitting coordination, and collaboration with engineers and other technical consultants.

For a hangar home, the architect may also be working through some unusual conditions that don't exist in a typical custom residence.

The scale of the hangar is dramatically different from the scale of the home. Large hangar doors influence structure. The property may have both street and taxiway access. The relationship between the hangar and residence can introduce additional code, fire-separation, mechanical, structural, or jurisdiction-specific requirements that need to be addressed by the appropriate licensed professionals.

Your architect takes the overall vision and helps turn it into architecture that can actually be built. That's an essential role, but a buildable floor plan and a beautifully functioning interior aren't automatically the same thing.

What Does an Interior Designer Do on a Hangar Home?

This is where there tends to be some confusion.

Interior design on a new construction project isn't simply choosing paint, tile, countertops, and furniture after the plans are finished. At Aeroview, I want to be involved much earlier than that.

During preliminary planning, we're looking at the floor plan through the lens of the people who will actually live there. We're thinking about furniture placement, circulation, storage, cabinetry, lighting, views, room proportions, daily routines, entertaining, and the transitions between different parts of the property.

That can mean asking questions such as: Where does your flight bag go when you come home? What happens to luggage coming out of the airplane? Can the dining table actually fit comfortably where it's drawn? Does the kitchen layout support the way you cook and entertain? Where will the television go? Does the primary bedroom have enough uninterrupted wall space for the furniture? Is the closet being planned around what you actually own? What will you see when you're standing at the kitchen island?

None of those questions may dramatically change the exterior architecture, but collectively, they can dramatically change how the home feels to live in. We're designing for pilots so we're also considering how the hangar participates in that lifestyle.

The Floor Plan Is Where the Two Roles Begin to Overlap

This is one of the most important things to understand when assembling your design team.

Both your architect and interior designer may have input on the floor plan, but they're often evaluating it differently.

An architect may be thinking about building massing, structure, circulation, exterior elevations, code, rooflines, windows, and how all of those pieces fit together architecturally.

I'm also looking at circulation, but I'm asking different questions.

Can you walk around the furniture comfortably? What happens when twelve people are gathered around the kitchen? Is there enough room between the island and cabinetry? Does the furniture arrangement take advantage of the view? Where does the Christmas tree go? Can you open a bathroom door without creating an awkward conflict? Does a beautiful wall of windows leave us anywhere to put the television?

These can sound like small details until you're living with them every day.

That's why I don't view floor-plan review as stepping into the architect's role. It's another layer of information that can help the architect refine the architecture around the way the client intends to live.

The best result happens when those conversations take place collaboratively.

Your Interior Designer Shouldn't Be Meeting the Floor Plan for the First Time After It's Finished

This is where I see homeowners unintentionally limit their options.

They spend months developing plans with an architect or builder. The plans are finalized. Engineering begins. Construction documents move forward. Eventually someone says:

"Okay, now it's time to bring in the interior designer and pick selections."

At that point, I can absolutely help create a beautiful interior, but I may also see things I would have recommended changing six months earlier.

Maybe moving a wall would have dramatically improved the furniture layout. Perhaps the kitchen needs another foot. Maybe the primary bathroom could have been configured differently. We may realize that a window is exactly where cabinetry needs to go or that the lighting plan doesn't support how the furniture will actually be arranged.

Now those changes aren't simply lines moving on paper. They may affect architecture, engineering, construction documents, pricing, or work that's already underway.

That's why I would much rather be part of the conversation while we're still asking questions.

Construction should bring the design to life not become the place where we discover the design.

Hangar Homes Require Another Level of Coordination

A hangar home isn't simply a custom house with a large garage attached to it.

The aviation lifestyle creates relationships that need to be considered across the entire property.

Where is the taxiway? Where should the hangar sit? How does the airplane move onto the property? How does the residence relate to the hangar? Do you want to see the airplane from the living room? How do you move between the two spaces? Where do flight bags, headsets, luggage, shoes, tools, and aviation gear go?

Then we have the hangar itself.

Is it purely operational, or is it also a place where you entertain? Will there be a pilot lounge? Office? Bathroom? Kitchen or beverage area? Golf simulator? Guest space? Workshop?

These decisions can affect plumbing locations, electrical planning, lighting, windows, doors, wall locations, mechanical systems, and square footage.

That's exactly why having the architect and interior designer communicating early can be so valuable. The architect shouldn't have to guess how the interiors need to function. The interior designer shouldn't have to work around architecture that was developed without understanding the client's interior priorities and the builder shouldn't be left in the field trying to reconcile decisions that could have been resolved months earlier.

So, Who Should You Hire First?

You don't necessarily need to think about it as a strict sequence.

The better question is:

Who needs to be at the table before the floor plan is finalized?

If you're starting with raw land, an architect may be essential very early as you begin evaluating the site, building requirements, feasibility, and overall architecture, but that doesn't mean the interior designer needs to wait.

In fact, I prefer to begin working with clients while the project is still flexible. That gives us time to develop the lifestyle programming, evaluate the preliminary floor plan, establish important interior relationships, think through the hangar-to-home experience, and communicate those priorities to the architect.

The architect can then use that information as part of the architectural development.

Instead of one professional finishing and handing the project to the next, the process becomes collaborative.

Client + Designer + Architect + Builder

Each person brings a different kind of expertise to the table.

What If Your Builder Provides the Plans?

This is common, especially in residential development.

A builder may already have a plan, offer modifications to an existing plan, or work with someone who can produce the drawings required for the project. That can absolutely be a starting point.

But the same question applies: has the plan been evaluated around you?

A plan can meet the square-footage requirement, have the correct number of bedrooms, fit on the lot, and still not be the best layout for the way your family lives. This is where preliminary planning becomes valuable.

Before everyone becomes attached to the plan, we can evaluate room relationships, furniture, storage, entertaining, lighting, the hangar connection, views, and everyday routines. If something needs to change, we identify it early enough for the appropriate person to revise and document it.

What If the Floor Plan Is Already Finished?

This is probably one of the most common things I hear:

"Our floor plan is already done. We just need help with selections."

Sometimes that's exactly right.

The plans are truly finalized, the layout has been thoroughly considered, and the next step is developing and coordinating cabinetry, countertops, flooring, tile, plumbing fixtures, decorative lighting, hardware, paint, and the other decisions the builder needs.

That's where a Construction Selections Package can make sense.

Other times, though, "finished" simply means someone has drawn the floor plan.

If construction hasn't started and you're still able to make changes, it may be worth evaluating the plan before moving straight into selections. A beautiful countertop can't fix a kitchen that doesn't function well, and great furniture can't completely solve a room whose proportions were wrong from the beginning.

The earlier we identify those things, the more options we have.

What About Engineers, Builders, and Other Professionals?

Architect and interior designer aren't the only two members of a hangar home team.

Depending on the project, you may also need structural, civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, or other engineering professionals; a general contractor; specialized hangar-door expertise; landscape professionals; lighting or technology specialists; and other consultants.

The exact team varies based on the project and jurisdiction. That's another reason I don't believe one professional should try to be everything.

A strong project team isn't about overlapping egos or deciding whose idea wins. It's about making sure each decision is being handled by the person with the appropriate expertise and that those decisions are communicated across the team.

For the client, the experience should feel coordinated even though many people may be working behind the scenes.

Architect or Interior Designer? For a Hangar Home, Think Team.

If you're building a custom hangar home, you aren't simply creating a structure. You're creating the place where your home life and aviation life meet.

The architect brings architectural and technical expertise. The interior designer brings another level of planning around how the spaces function, feel, furnish, and support your everyday life. The builder brings construction expertise and turns those plans into reality. Engineers and specialty consultants solve the technical systems that make the project possible.

Those roles don't have to compete. When the right team is assembled early and communicates well, each discipline can make the others stronger and for a hangar home, that's particularly important because the airplane, hangar, residence, property, and people living there are all connected.

At Aeroview Design Co., our Preliminary Planning & Concept Design process allows us to get involved before everything is locked in. We look at your property, lifestyle, hangar, floor plan, interior relationships, and future needs so those priorities can be coordinated with your architect, builder, and project team.

Because the best time to discover that something should change is while we're still moving lines on paper not after we're moving walls on site.

Planning a hangar home and not sure who you need on your team? Schedule a Discovery Call with Aeroview Design Co. We can talk about where your project currently stands, what has already been completed, and the right next step for the design process.