When a new client first contacts us, we will generally ask them to write down what they want. This becomes the ‘brief’. Sometimes it’s an A4 page, and occasionally it’s a book of text and magazine scraps. Whatever the format, this is the beginning of the process - the client tells us what they would like, or what they need.
What follows is a sequence of meetings and discussions around concept sketches. These are often very high-level blob diagrams that start to look at general issues and which, most importantly, address the brief, but also start to incorporate themes of light, view, sun and environment.
Here are two very recent examples of this process, with the final results shown along with the design models and sketches.
It’s important to get your building design just right, so the design process will vary in length with each client. For some, it’s a quick decision while for others, more time will be needed to evolve the design and incorporate new ideas towards final arrangement. This is part of the process - and we’re here to ensure you get as close as possible or exceed your ideal design – and we’ll guide you and advise you in this as required.
This involves high-level design to show you what the final building will look like and we present this in a range of 2D and 3D drawings and sketches, which can include computer visualisations.
In this stage, we’ll look at the technicality of your new house, considering material choices, construction techniques, thermal efficiency, the stability of foundations, ground conditions, renewable technologies, etc.
Seeking and securing prices from contractors, appointing and managing the preferred builder, the entire build phase, and checking all is well once you have the keys!
In reality, this is all processed using the RIBA plan of work, which is available to digest here: www.architecture.com
