Design Process

A good design starts with a clear and well thought-out brief. Understanding your vision and how you want the design to enhance your life is essential, which is why time is taken to truly get to know your project aspirations before any work begins.

• Motivations: What you want your project to enable.
• Lifestyle: The way you like to live.
• Building Requirements: Considerations like family size, entertaining needs, and functionality.
• Specifics: Unique interests, hobbies, and spatial requirements that matter to you.

By understanding these key elements, the design can truly reflect your vision and serve your needs in the most meaningful way.

Every site presents its own unique opportunities and challenges. A successful design responds accurately to these factors, which is why I place great emphasis on a really thorough site analysis. This ensures a full understanding of the site’s potential and limitations, allowing the design to maximise its advantages while addressing any constraints.

Key considerations in the site analysis include:

• Climate: Temperature, humidity, and seasonal variations to optimise comfort and energy use.
• Views: Key vistas and sightlines to enhance connection with the environment.
• Prevailing Wind: Wind patterns to inform ventilation and outdoor spaces.
• Sun Exposure: Daylight and shade to optimise energy efficiency and comfort.
• Topography: Slopes and contours to inform layout and accessibility.
• Privacy: Screening and spatial planning to ensure privacy and minimise overlooking.
• Access & Circulation: Pathways and entry points for smooth movement through the site.
• Ecosystems: Existing flora, fauna and natural features to preserve or integrate.

By carefully analysing these factors, the design can be fully aligned with the site’s distinctive characteristics and surroundings.

The building design is developed across two separate design stages, providing multiple opportunities for your feedback to be integrated, ensuring the outcome aligns with your brief and expectations.

Concept Design

The first stage - serving as the project’s initial draft - where ideas take shape. This stage explores the building’s layout, form, and relationship to the site, testing different approaches to space, light, and flow. It’s an opportunity to establish the project’s direction and ensure the core design feels right before moving into detailed development.

Developed Design

The refinement stage, where the design is finalised in detail. This stage focuses on resolving the building’s form, materials, and technical aspects, ensuring everything works seamlessly together. It includes careful consideration of structure, services, and construction methods, while incorporating your feedback to ensure the final design fully meets your brief and expectations.

Key Design Considerations

• Functionality – Ensuring spaces work intuitively for daily use.
• Daylight & Views – Maximising natural light and framing the site’s best outlooks for everyday enjoyment.
• Circulation – Creating clear, natural flow throughout the building.
• Form & Structure – Developing a cohesive architectural character that integrates efficiency, strength, and longevity.
• Budget – Balancing design ambitions with financial realities.
• Materiality – Combining mainstream building methods with natural materials for clients who value them.
• Site Layout – Responding to the land’s natural features while integrating infrastructure like water, wastewater, and access.
• Buildability – Designing with construction practicality in mind to streamline the building process.
• Maintenance & Durability – Selecting materials and details that age gracefully and require minimal upkeep.
• Passive Design – Harnessing the site’s natural forces passively - sun, wind, and thermal mass - to create healthy, comfortable spaces with minimal energy use.
• Local Natural Character – Ensuring the design feels at home within its surroundings.
• Environmental Impact – Minimising the building’s footprint while maintaining comfort, functionality, and beauty.

Checking the design's build cost with more accuracy to ensure that it's in alignment with your budget before committing to the final, and most involved, Documentation & Consenting stages.

This involves the preparation of preliminary plans, collaborating with quantity surveyors, and presenting findings to you via a Cost Estimate Report.

This stage reduces the risk of cost blowouts during construction.

Preparing the final plans and documentation necessary for construction and consenting (resource and/or building consent), and taking care of the whole consent process on your behalf. Ensuring a stress-free process for you, while I take care of all the bureaucratic and administrative complexities, leaving you free to enjoy the excitement of your project approaching the construction stage!