This page is for anyone planning to build or refurbish a home of their own. If you are a property developer and what you have on the table is a scheme, the specific page is residential architecture for property developers.
Maiz & Diaz Arquitectos is an architecture studio based in Marbella, founded in 1998 and made up of 22 professionals, specialising in residential architecture on the Costa del Sol.
What you contract, in what order, and what you decide at each step
A commission is not contracted all at once: it is contracted in stages, and at the end of each one there is documentation delivered and a decision the client makes before going further.
1. Initial consultation and feasibility
Analysis of the plot, planning constraints and feasibility of the commission before any design work begins. This is where what can actually be built, and under what conditions, is established.
What you decide here: whether the buildable area, setbacks and heights the regulations allow match what you had in mind — before spending anything on design.
2. Concept design
Definition of the architectural idea: siting, orientation, relationship with the landscape and organisation of the spaces. On the Costa del Sol, the relationship with Mediterranean light and with the views shapes many of the decisions.
What you decide here: the proposal itself. This is the stage where changes are cheap, because no technical documentation has been developed on top of it yet.
3. Planning permission documentation
Documentation defining the building and enabling the municipal licence application: floor plans, elevations, sections, areas and design statement.
What you decide here: which design goes to the town hall. From this point on, changing the volume or the layout means redoing documentation already submitted.
4. Construction documentation
Full development of the project with the technical detail required to build it: construction detailing, quantities and tender documentation.
What you decide here: the document you send out for pricing. The more defined it is, the less room there is for cost overruns during construction.
5. BIM coordination
The studio has an in-house BIM department. Modelling makes it possible to coordinate architecture, structure and services on a single model, detect clashes before construction and keep the documentation consistent throughout the project.
6. Technical management and coordination
Coordination with engineering consultants, with the other parties involved and with the client throughout the different phases.
Villas and single-family homes
35 villas and 12 single-family homes published. The concentration is in Benahavis, where the studio has designed 29 of its 35 villas: 7 in La Zagaleta and 16 in Capanes, plus projects in Monte Mayor, Los Flamingos, Los Arqueros, Reserva de Alcuzcuz and Nueva Atalaya.
See luxury villas, single-family homes and the projects in Benahavis.
Other project types
Multi-family development is the largest category in the portfolio, with 46 published schemes, but it is work for developers rather than for private clients: it is covered on the page for property developers. There are also two published hotel projects, an occasional line of work within a mainly residential portfolio.
Areas of work
The studio is based in Marbella and works across the Costa del Sol and the province of Malaga:
There are also published projects in Casares, Fuengirola, Torremolinos, Malaga city, Sotogrande, Almunecar, Rincon de la Victoria and Velez-Malaga.
Fees
No fee scale is published, and the reason is that an honest one would not exist: two homes of the same floor area can require very different work depending on the slope of the plot, the local regulations or the stages contracted. Every commission is studied and quoted separately, stating what each stage includes.
Talk to the studio · Frequently asked questions
Are you a property developer? There is a specific page on residential architecture for property developers, with the stages of the work and the schemes whose authorship is externally credited.
Looking for a single-family commission? See the studio's 35 published villa projects in Marbella and on the Costa del Sol.