The Architectural Design Process

The Architectural Design Process involves a far more complex series of steps to complete. Designing a house isn’t as simple as sketching on paper or creating a 3D model. To be honest, those only take up a piece of the puzzle. Designing a home takes a lot of man-hours. Why? Because a lot of planning and design considerations go into play. 

Architectural Design Process Common Misconceptions

The common misconception in home design is architects charge so much when most designs can now be made on the computer. What most people do not realize is, the time spent in designing is longer than what it is perceived to be. The entire process from creating your concept, 3D modeling, and drafting the blueprints add up the man-hours required in completing a project. 

The whole process of designing your home may seem like an overwhelming feat. Most people have no idea where to even start, creating guesswork in the whole process. Some people think that a 3D model is enough to help build your home. What most people do not understand is, 3D models, do not have enough dimensioned and graphical information that is crucial in laying out your house’s footprint during construction.  

The Common Denominator Between Architectural Design Processes

Architectural design processes may vary between architects. However, there is a common denominator that makes each process the same. And this is, the back and forth revision that comes with each design project. Revisions are often undesirable, causing additional man-hours to complete. Requesting for revisions may often seem scary and intimidating, because there is guesswork included in each request. You don’t really know how much your revision will cost because it will all depend on the amount of time allocated to it. 

Since everyone is confused with how the architectural design process works, we have made it our mission to explain and simplify the steps you need to take when planning your home. In 8-simple steps, we will walk you through the whole process of designing your home.

What Makes Our Process Unique?

Our Design Methodology allows clients to go back and forth with revisions at ease. Our process is created with the hopes that revisions will be delivered and charged at the minimum possible cost. By doing so, It will allow you to make as many revisions as needed without breaking the bank.

Revisions are the backbone of each design project. Revisions are important because they are often an improvement of a previous plan. Similarly, it allows a plan or design to achieve maximum functionality and aesthetics. We are all for revisions because revising plans allow us to carefully sit down and examine plans, preventing costly construction mistakes. 

They say that it’s better to have a hundred revisions than to make mistakes on site. The truth is, mistakes on-site are inevitable. There is no way to totally prevent these unfortunate events from happening but through careful plan examination, we are able to mitigate these from happening.  

The Tools of the Trade

Choosing L.Ateliér as your architectural design partner will provide an exciting, immersive, and collaborative design process that is meant to excite. Our tools, Archi-typing and ARA help make this possible.

Archi-Typing

Archi-typing is an intuitive and interactive profiling system that reveals your preference in terms of architectural design. It is specifically helpful for clients who have no words to describe what they want in terms of architectural style. Taking the assessment and having yourself profiled allows us to create designs that are specifically tailored to your taste.

If you wish to experience a glimpse of what archi-typing is all about, you may take the short assessment here. 

ARA (Architectural Requirements Assessment) Workbook

The ARA workbook is a tool that will help you identify your design requirements. It allows us to plan spaces in terms of your wants, needs, and requirements. Creating a list of design considerations and requirements can often be overwhelming for first-time homeowners. The inability to draft a complete list prior to the design process makes way for more revisions. We are not saying that revisions are bad, instead, we believe that revisions can be minimized if all requirements are defined in the beginning. 

You can download our ARA Workbook for free here. 

The 8-Step Design Methodology 

STEP 1: Ideation (Project Definition)

Before we dive into creating the design, it is important to carefully study all the parameters that come with your project. In this case, it is important to define all requirements and considerations that we need to consider when planning your home. 

To put it simply, Ideation is a brainstorming session involving you, the client, and us, the architects. 

STEP 2: Creation (Initial Schematic Design)

The Initial Schematic Design is a 3D representation of the plan and all its parts. It presents the architectural solutions in response to the design requirements discussed during step 1.  

STEP 3: Collaboration (Preliminary Design Presentation)

Once the Initial Schematic Design has already taken place, we now have a working 3D model to present and pick our brains with. Having a working 3D model allows us to create meaningful discussions in our brainstorming session.  It helps us visualize possibilities regarding your project, fostering an interactive and collaborative discussion.

STEP 4: Synthesis (Final Schematic Design)

Taking all ideas previously discussed in Step 3, Synthesis weaves everything together into a new 3D model.  

STEP 5: Endorsement (Final Schematic Design Presentation)

Once again, we sit down together and carefully analyze the final scheme. This step will make or break the Design Development of your project. The approval of this Schematic Design will allow you to progress to Step 6, which refers to the drafting of Architectural Blueprints.

In the event that the Final Schematic Plan is disapproved, we go back to Step 4. We can progress to Step 6 only when the Final Schematic Plan is endorsed.

STEP 6: Architectural Blueprints 

In order to accurately map out and plot your design during construction, you will need Architectural Blueprints to help you out with that. Architectural Blueprints, provide detailed, graphical plans that will aid in the construction of your project. On top of that, Architectural Blueprints are also a standard requirement when applying for a building permit. 

STEP 7: Engineering Blueprints

Once the Architectural Drawings are done and final, these plans shall then be submitted to various Engineers and Interior Designer for further plan development. Engineering blueprints are drafted based on the architectural blueprints. It’s the reason why it goes one step after.

STEP 8: Estimates

Now that you have all the details in check, you can now create a detailed estimate of the whole project.

The Bill of Materials and Estimates basically defines the project’s total cost. It is an integral part of our 8-Step Design Methodology because it defines the feasibility of your proposed project.

If you wish to learn more about our 8-Step Design Methodology, you may book a free consultation here.