Planning A House Design Project

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A building plan for your new house design or building project defines the long-term rollout of your project or renovation that connects every part of both the design and building process from concept to completion.

A building plan is vital for any residential architect or architecture firm and their clients today.

Building costs continue to rise, the local labour shortage leaves the industry vulnerable and balancing margins and cash flow becomes more challenging. This strategic plan can also future-proof your home.

Developing the plan

We are no strangers to processes. We follow a meticulous architectural process with our clients that supports every design decision, compliance requirement and contractual consideration. Much the same approach applies to setting up a strategic plan.

Here we break it down into three steps:

1. The Need
2. The Insights
3. The Plan

The Need

The first part of the building plan process is for us to understand what you, as the client, want. What is your vision for your particular build? Is it a short- or long-term plan and what do those time frames look like?

What is the budget? (Even if you say you don’t have one, you probably have a number in your head.)

It is also important to seek advice on how the area is performing from a property growth and value perspective too, which can guide you in deciding on the project budget vs return on investment goals, especially north shore properties that are witnessing such exponential growth.

This step also requires some intelligent and honest sanity checks between ourselves and the client to understand the holistic view of the project from the get-go.

Partnering with the right architect is where our services become invaluable.

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The Insights

This step requires some meticulous number-crunching that will need some expert analysis.

Building material costs have shown another 12% increase year on year and show no signs of deceleration. The further lockdown restrictions in Asia and unrest in Eastern Europe are not helping commodity prices for raw materials either. However, the dire skills shortage in Australia is forecast to be the main driver for rising building costs this year.

Consider the environmental impact and whether this particular property is subject to any council regulations or approvals.

Who will be responsible for the tricky and often daunting DA process? What are the financial requirements or commitments you will need to make and who will you need to make them to?

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The Plan

It is now time to analyse phases one and two, make some decisions and plan.

And when we say plan, we mean detailed discussions around timeframes and budgets, including a margin to facilitate any potential material or labour cost increases, inflation buffers and annual increases, depending on how long the project timeline is forecast to take.

Liaising with Council, meeting with and planning with contractors, suppliers and other third parties is an essential step in what is a linear planning process.

The planning process has been designed to minimise reworking or redoing design documentation work which can be expensive and time consuming for all parties including client, architect, consultants and builder.

Forming a holistic partnership with your architect can help mitigate such situations and ensure that the strategic plan is followed for short- and long-term success.

To discuss or start building your strategic building plan, contact us and find out more about what we do and how we can help build or renovate your dream home.