A Planning Process
A Simple but Valuable Planning Process:
Developing the architectural design for a home or most any project, requires a process that helps you navigate through a diverse array of decisions. This is especially true when having to coordinate among various stakeholders. This post will focus on a brief overview, to help navigate your project to completion. And establish a simple but needed process.
Good Design Requires Careful Thought:
Often, our initial ideas fall short, and it is not until they are refined and expanded upon that they become worth perusing. This is precisely where planning can become such a wonderful tool of exploration and discovery. Planning provides a way to work through ideas and begin the process of setting a course. It also helps to refine ideas over time and perhaps reveal challenges that need resolution or expose risk. Discovering challenges early can save time and money. A great way to begin, includes forming the building program and functional requirements. This engages a thought process and exposes many facets. Working through your program, will establish the preliminaries. Unfortunately, many homes that are mass produced will by-pass this planning stage. Often it is said to plan is costly! We say to not plan is even more so. And the one size fits all philosophy falls far short of meeting the needs of human beings. It is ironic that in an age of mass produced widgets, that promised low cost and mass production would become so expensive! Can the cost of not falling short of human centric needs even be calculated?
Only after a good understanding of the building program and client expectations are understood, can the designer begin the next phase of exploring ideas, and possible solutions. But remember, it’s all contingent upon a specific program, which BTW must include the site, and budget requirements, etc. The process leads to clarity and adds value to the project by way of thoughtful development. This planning process provides the initial steps, but also develops and organizes the building objectives and goals; providing clarity. Through this planning process, the project starts a dialogue or story of whats important, and where we want to take this project. ( BTW, this planning process alone, can far and above exceed a design professionals fee for the entire project.)
Hiring an architect for your residential project may not be possible for everyone. However, it can be beneficial on many levels, to seek council at minimum on initial planning ideas and assessment. The architect’s experience and ability to think holistically and work through various solutions beyond just the standard stock plan approach, helps the client achieve greater efficiencies that are simply not achieved with a factory assembly line process. This also provides the client with site specific solutions that are infinity more valuable than an arbitrary process that seems to serve modern production needs and machines than it does human beings!
A Case Study Example:
By way of a simple example, If the architect can design a residential plan operate more efficiently, even by 100sf, that can represent a major cost savings, In the case were a building cost is $250/sf, that can be a $25,000 savings! (using a very conservative building cost value.) This is a tiny example, however it provides a clear advantage in designing a home. In addition, aligning the extensive array of various functions with the design, provides solutions that are harmonious and well thought out. The potential to serve a homeowner through a formal design process provides many a great advantages, even if it is just a simple planning document. Winston Churchill said, “We shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us.” Our building infrastructure has an effect on our emotional and physical needs as humans. Both the hight, the width and the depth of which all come to play a vital part.
When a schematic plan is developed, it establishes a process in which you are able to order your goals and objective. As ideas are developed, and greater levels of information can be established this can serve as a preliminary cost estimation tool. A building contractor can review these documents and provide preliminary cost estimates, based on specific square footage and design parameters. It’s a great way to gauge your budget and the cost implications at an early stage. This can also facilitate effective revisions long before the project is built.
Another aspect or benefit of using a design process led by an architect, establishes a framework to evaluate all the applicable building codes. This is specifically about mitigating risk, and establishing a clear path before the construction process starts. In short, this is not only about the design, it is about creating a project that is healthy and one that has substantial value; creating incredible experiences.
Utilizing an Architect to Help Plan:
Like soo many things in life, success comes with vision and a plan. Having a design process in place can greatly help in clarify objectives and create meaningful goals. It is also interesting how setting out on a journey to create something, can lead to discovery and improvement. There is quite unique and speaks to the extraordinary yet simple process of planning. As an architect, I can help many a clients to begin the process and help envision the project; even starting with the end in mind. In short, with no guide, chaos quickly ensues and will undermine any project. The process that leads to bringing ideas and concepts together in a meaningful way, can and will help make the dreams a reality. It’s important that the client has an advocate and advisor to balance the art with the science of building.
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