The Process
Meeting and Quotation
The Initial meeting is usually at our office to ascertain the brief and feel for the project. This entails discussions on proposed ideas, challenges, council restrictions and general practical advice. As we give lots of valuable advice during this meeting we charge a small fee for this consultation. When you decide you like what we offer, a fee submission can be prepared and emailed to you. This fee submission sets out whatʼs included, whatʼs not included, also the stages of the design and documentation process (usually 3-5 stages). When the fee submission is met with your approval, you need to sign it, pay a deposit and the process of designing your project can come to fruition.
1st Stage
Firstly I will investigate the site, checking solar access, vehicle access, services, slope etc. Measurements and photos are taken. Sometimes I will start the design on site, but other times it is best to start at the office on the drawing board. We will usually organise a contour survey plan for you. All information gathered so far is utilised to create a great building design custom made for you.
Sketch’s of the floor plans, an elevation and a section are produced in pencil format for your perusal. We discuss in great detail, positions of rooms, windows, kitchen layout, location, sizes … You then take the plans home and live with them for awhile, trying to imagine yourself in these new exciting spaces. You might compare the sizes shown to those that you are living with at home. After sitting with the design, and when you feel ready, weʼll discuss any changes that may be required.
2nd Stage
Once you have approved the sketch plans we move on to building the residence in the computer. This results in a 3d model that can be viewed & analysed from any angle just like you see on the TV. This visual software can enable any details of the plan to be fine tuned with great clarity, including colours and textures. We also produce solar penetration 3dʼs. This shows where the sun is hitting the house or penetrating the windows at different times of year. This is very handy for pointing out potential hot spots in summer. The last thing you want is the sun penetrating your living room at 3pm in summer. And the best thing to have is winter sun penetrating far into your home.
3rd and or 4th Stages
Once your happy with the 3D model, documentation for council purposes can proceed. Sometimes a Development Approval stage is required, if this is the case there will be a 3rd and 4th stage. If a DA is not required then we can go straight to BA stage. Plans are fully dimensioned and includes thorough notation explaining any unusual features.
Building Code, Council regʼs, Engineers and any other special reports like Energy Assessments are also incorporated. We organise all consultants and reports required for you as part of our service. We take pride in how smooth we make the building design and application process for you.
A site plan is produced showing where the building sits in relation to the survey contour plan, northpoint, services, sewer and stormwater. Floor plans including sub-floor, roof plan, reflected ceiling plan, all elevations, sections and details are produced ready for the builder to quote on. Any extra details of individual features can be documented at this stage or the next stage including Door and Window schedules, and Lighting & Electrical Layouts.
All copies of the building plans are produced in colour pdf’s for clarity and presentation purposes and sent whenever and wherever is necessary to enable best practice communication. Along with this we now have new BIMx software that enables us to send a fully navigable 3d model with colours andtextures that the builders can use on site to show the tradesmen what it looks like which helps solve any issues before they start. This model can be viewed on your laptop, ipad or iphone. The finished plans are then ready to submit to the private certifier for building approval.