AI Minutes for Swiss Architecture Firms: Client Meetings, Site Meetings, SIA Compliance

In a typical Swiss architecture firm, 30–50 meetings per mandate require minutes: client meetings, site meetings, tender meetings, authority appointments, planning sessions with engineers, defect inspections. Under SIA standards 102/103, many of these have to be documented with traceable minutes. In reality, much of this work is written up in the evening or at weekends.

Suisse Notes takes over this work — with Swiss German support, SIA-compliant templates and Swiss data protection.

Which meeting types benefit most

Client meetings

The most important minutes in the project — and the most time-critical. Decisions on cost overruns, sampling choices, deadlines, interfaces. Under SIA 118 often with binding effect for later billing.

With Suisse Notes Pro on the meeting table: 4 microphones with beamforming, speaker recognition, Swiss German native. The minutes are ready 5 minutes after the meeting ends — in your office template, with agenda items, decisions, action items and responsibilities.

Site meetings

On site, site managers, foremen, contractors and engineers all speak in dialect — quickly, often with background noise. Classic apps fail here on two counts: on acoustics and on language.

Suisse Notes Pin on the hardhat or collar also captures noisy environments thanks to beamforming. Audio stays encrypted, is processed on Swiss servers, and the finished minutes appear with defect list, deadline status and photo references.

Tender meetings and procurement

For public contracts, traceability under BöB/IVöB is legally relevant. Who said what, when was which decision made, who opposed. Suisse Notes creates verifiable, signed minutes with timestamps and speaker attribution — optionally with reference to the audio sequence (legally sound traceability).

Authority appointments

Building-permit meetings with municipal building authorities, BAFU appointments, cantonal building-department appointments. Here officials speak in local dialect, often with cantonal specialist vocabulary ("Ausnützungsziffer", "Grenzabstand", "Lärmempfindlichkeitsstufe", "Mehrwertabgabe"). Suisse Notes learns the vocabulary of your office and the most frequent authority partners.

Sampling appointments

During sampling (materials, surfaces, sanitary objects, finishes), many small decisions are made that later become relevant for the works contracts. Suisse Notes Pin on the collar, photo with the phone camera — Suisse Notes automatically links image and audio into a sampling entry.

SIA-compliant document templates

The Document Studio includes prepared templates for Swiss architecture firms:

• Meeting minutes SIA 102: agenda, decisions, action items with deadline/responsible
• Site minutes SIA 118: attendees, weather, works, defects, action items, next appointment
• Sampling minutes: component, variant, price, decision, responsible
• Building acceptance minutes: component, status, defects, deadline, responsible
• Client decision: facts, variant A/B/C, recommendation, decision, follow-up costs

You can customise these templates with your office branding (logo, colours, fonts) — set up once, then the AI fills them in automatically.

Swiss German on the construction site

In no other industry is dialect spoken as consistently as on Swiss construction sites. From the foreman from Aargau to the site manager from Visp — standard German is the exception, not the rule. Suisse Notes recognises all major Swiss dialects and delivers clean standard German in the minutes.

Industry vocabulary is pre-trained: "Mauerlatte", "Sturz", "Querkraft", "Schrägverbundbauweise", "Sickerschacht", "Umgebungsgestaltung" — but also regional terms like "Schopf", "Hocker", "Lavor".

Data protection for building projects

Building projects often contain sensitive data: client wealth situation, lease contracts, surveying data, structural calculations with security relevance. Especially for public buildings (town halls, schools, hospitals), confidentiality requirements are particularly high.

Suisse Notes processes everything on Swiss servers, nDPA-compliant, ISO 27001. Access trees ensure that external site managers cannot see internal mandate minutes.

Which device for which setup

• Suisse Notes Pro on the meeting table in the office — client meetings, planning sessions
• Suisse Notes Pin on the construction helmet or collar — site meetings, sampling, authority inspections
• Suisse Notes Max in the meeting room for large client meetings — up to 12 people
• Suisse Notes Desk in the office for phone calls with clients and contractors

Integration with architect software

API integration with the most common Swiss construction administration and planning systems:

• Construction administration: Sorba, BRZ, Allplan Bimplus
• CAD/BIM: Allplan, ArchiCAD, Vectorworks — minutes linked directly to the project
• Project filing: SharePoint, Confluence, MS Teams channel files
• Defect management: Plan.One, Capmo, BauApp

What you gain

An 8-person architecture firm with 15 active mandates:

• Before: 8–12 h/week of minute-writing, often on weekends
• With Suisse Notes: 1–2 h/week reviewing the AI minutes
• Difference: 30+ hours per week freed up for design work and acquisition

Plus: Clients receive minutes within 24 hours instead of a week. That works — and shows up in referrals.

First steps

1. Pilot with one mandate: Test Suisse Notes Pro for 4 weeks, record all meetings 2. Import custom templates: Upload your office-specific meeting minutes Word file 3. Configure languages/dialects: Set up site manager region and standard vocabulary 4. Workflow integration: API connection to your CAD/project filing system 5. Scale-up: Pin for site managers, Pro for office locations, Max for client meetings

Conclusion

Architects spend too much time on minute-taking work that AI can now do better. Suisse Notes is the only system with native Swiss German, SIA-compliant templates and Swiss data protection — the combination a professional architecture firm needs in 2026.