Process

Initial Meeting

 

For our initial meeting the clients should have outlined a number of objectives. First and foremost, we need to clearly define the goals of the project. 

 

This may take the form of a new kitchen or bathroom that is carefully tailored to the way that you live or it may be an entirely new home.   Either way, the objective should not be thought of as “add a new 11’x12’ bedroom” but it could be “add a new bedroom that will be sized according to our needs and desires.”  This allows us as architects to offer ideas and concepts that are beyond the two-dimensional image of a room and take into account details such as:

 

• Natural lighting
• View inside and outside the home
• Circulation within the home
• Furniture layout,
• The style of the home
• Your entertaining patterns (formal or informal etc.)
• Physical attributes of the site and any existing structures on the site
• Ceiling height and shape
• Finishes and moldings

 

 

 

What to Bring

 

As you can see, the list can often involve quite a range of items.  The client can establish these goals in a number of ways:

 

Often a file folder full of magazine clippings is a helpful way to start our discussion about a particular style or concept or even photo of a special piece of furniture or finish. Other useful items are property surveys including topography (site contours if the site is not flat.)  It is also helpful to have some idea of the important spaces and uses that you want to have like the number of bedrooms, but it is not important to have a defined floor plan for the home. In addition we need to talk about how you intend to use your home.  Do you entertain formally or informally? How large of a gathering do you anticipate when you entertain?  It is important to recognize that much of the entertaining that we do is not planned, it can be a friend, neighbor or relative that just drops by or you invite over after some other function.  This spontaneous entertaining is often very important but not part of a clients formal plan when we sit down and begin talking about the project.

 

• For the continuation of this outline, please download our New Client Handout (PDF file)