7 things your architect needs to know to start on your design

You’d like a huge dressing room and an open plan living space but there’s plenty more to think about before you instruct an architect, says Gareth Boyd, Director at 2020 Architects.

1. Set your site high on the agenda

Your site will have one of the biggest impacts on the design of your home. Understanding a site’s location, orientation and topography are fundamental to the successful design of any home, so gathering as much detail as possible about the site is essential.

Information on the sun’s path, location of any trees on the site and direction of views will help shape the internal layout and general window positions, maximising the enjoyment of your new home. Positioning your house properly on the site will not only allow the natural light to flood in as much as possible, but will also increase the amount of heat generated via solar gain, reducing your heating bills. Don’t forget to find out about access to the site, location of nearby utilities and existing ground conditions as these will all have a large impact on the initial site costs and overall budget.

2. Less is more: consider your living space

Deciding on a list of rooms you’d like is a great place to start, but trying to work out what size you need, well that’s a little harder. A lot of clients seem to have a figure of around 2,500 sq ft  in their heads when they first approach us, but with open plan living and clever design, you can actually fit a lot of accommodation into less space. We always advise our clients to start off by making a ‘wish list’ of the rooms they’d like in their home and then use spaces in the house they’re in at the minute as a guide to sizes. For instance, most people can’t visualise what 3m x 2.5m actually looks like, but measuring your existing living room and knowing that you want your new one to be a little bigger, is a good way to figure out what size you need.

3. Money talks

This one is a biggie…the dreaded budget. No one wants to talk about money, but unfortunately it’s probably the most important factor when starting your self-build journey. Before approaching an architect, it’s always good to speak to a mortgage/financial advisor to work out approximately how much money you have to spend. Things like site costs, services, laneways and fees all have to be considered and subtracted from your overall budget, so we can work out exactly how much is left for the build itself. It’s also very useful to speak to a local estate agent to see what the final house might be worth. Even though you may plan to live in the house for many, many years, financially it’s not advisable to spend more money on the whole project, than the house will be worth in the end.

4. Low cost building or low cost living

Most people don’t have a bottomless pit of money to build their home, so they have to prioritise where they would like to spend their budget. For some people aesthetics is important and others want to spend as little as possible on the initial build, whereas some want to minimise the environmental impact and ongoing running costs. Making this decision will help your architect specify the best choices of materials and products for your project.

One piece of advice which we give to all of our clients: try and spend your money on items that are not easily replaced. If your budget is tight, it is easier to add on solar panels or change a bathroom suite at a later date, than trying to upgrade all the windows and insulation.

5. Consider your timeline

If you’re working to a deadline or speed is one of your main priorities, it is definitely something your architect needs to know. Complex or unusual design features not only add time and money onto your build, but may also make your design more difficult to get approved by local planning authorities, making it a longer process.

As a practice, we push the boundaries of Irish architecture and have great success, but some of our designs have taken quite a fight in planning, which has led to months being added onto the overall project. If time is a major factor we would advise keeping the design relatively simple in terms of form and structure, keeping build time to a minimum.

6. Are you a hostess or a hiker?

We often get funny looks when we start asking questions like “Do you prefer to spend your evening cooking for family or going for walks?” But all these small details have a big impact on the way we live and how a house should work. Think about your daily routine, what happens on special occasions, how often you go on holidays and any other aspects of your life that affect the way you use your home. For instance, open plan living is becoming more and more popular, but if you’re not into entertaining and prefer to leave the kitchen dishes and curl up in front of a fire at night, then perhaps it’s not for you.

7. Get pinning!

Although it’s part of an architect’s job to come up with different designs and options for your project, it is good to have an idea of the style of home you’d like to live in. Pulling together a digital scrapbook or mood board of houses or interiors you love, is a fantastic place to start and will help illustrate your ideas and tastes to the designer. Visit Pinterest and start gathering ideas for different areas of your home and any materials that you like - this will help your architect with your initial designs and speed up the whole process. Instagram is also a fantastic place to search for inspiration and there are hundreds of compelling self-build and renovation accounts, which provide a world of ideas and invaluable advice.