Regarding part about contracts. I live in Europe, so I'll look into local code about agreement between architect, owner and contractor. I suppose they are quite a lot differences between USA and Europe (not to mention European countries themselves).
Generative design is very interested for me as I am generally into optimisation problems. Ability to interact with design programatically is also first priority. I'll look into Rhino + Grasshopper. It looks nice, but as I mentioned in other comment I'd prefer my tools to be free if I'm going to learn them (I generally think that 3D/parametric drawing is becoming important skill nowadays, even outside architecture/engineering). I also have an engineering physics degree, so writing a solver for some building physics is not out of the scope, therefore my bias towards FreeCAD.
I surely understand that cost of switching would make it a loss if standard fee is applied. Billing hour is absolutely fine by me. Thanks for the tip about getting contractor and architect on board early and together.
To add some details I have the site and I'm not in a hurry at all, since there is already one house on that property, already built. I also have rough idea how it should be placed, look and function. At the moment it's more of a hobby project than true need to build a house.
Sorry to have assumed you're in the US. I don't know much about European residential architecture (although I did get to spend a semester in Barcelona and a semester in Helsinki in graduate school for one studio each), but I do know that European contractors on average produce much better work than US contractors. Your energy codes will be more stringent and so many more people you encounter will be familiar with simulation in order to hit tougher targets. But yes each country has its own set of standards, codes, and local knowledge that will come together differently in each case.
If you already have your site and you have a lot of time then I can say that one of the most productive ways of designing is through mapping. Guy Debord's map of Paris is an extremely subjective example, and at the other end of the spectrum might be to overlay a grid of half meter intervals all over the site and measure somewhat precisely some physical phenomena - the angle of view to various points of interest, or perhaps how loud ambient sounds are, or the sun exposure in hours, or any number of things. Putting these maps together can result in emergent designs or at least bring about considerations that maybe weren't foremost in your mind about siting, window placement, or program location. Of course, the most important map is the terrain map, tree placement height and canopy size, and rock placement, the more detailed the better.
Hopefully one day someone will compete with Rhino + Grasshopper in open source. At least the maker of Rhino has the OpenNurbs toolkit to develop geometry translators, so that's something. It does look like an exciting time to learn FreeCAD and I hope it goes well for you.
There's nothing really definite about generative design in literature yet, but there has been some useful stuff published. One of the more impressive researchers I've ever heard of is Achim Menges http://www.achimmenges.net working with the University of Stuttgart on biomimicry and optimized structures. Very cool stuff.
Also if you don't yet you might visit Archdaily regularly and check out what the industry is doing. Perhaps something will inspire you.
Regarding part about contracts. I live in Europe, so I'll look into local code about agreement between architect, owner and contractor. I suppose they are quite a lot differences between USA and Europe (not to mention European countries themselves).
Generative design is very interested for me as I am generally into optimisation problems. Ability to interact with design programatically is also first priority. I'll look into Rhino + Grasshopper. It looks nice, but as I mentioned in other comment I'd prefer my tools to be free if I'm going to learn them (I generally think that 3D/parametric drawing is becoming important skill nowadays, even outside architecture/engineering). I also have an engineering physics degree, so writing a solver for some building physics is not out of the scope, therefore my bias towards FreeCAD.
I surely understand that cost of switching would make it a loss if standard fee is applied. Billing hour is absolutely fine by me. Thanks for the tip about getting contractor and architect on board early and together.
To add some details I have the site and I'm not in a hurry at all, since there is already one house on that property, already built. I also have rough idea how it should be placed, look and function. At the moment it's more of a hobby project than true need to build a house.