Project Establishment is an information gather stage where when we establish the constraints of the project. During this initial stage, we conduct site visits, gathering essential information, including aspects like, important views, vehicle access and context.

We review and assess local authority rules and District Plans, ensuring a clear understanding of what is permissible and what may require resource consent.

At this stage we may engage a land surveyor on your behalf, to producing a topographical survey that we use in our digital modelling software.

For some projects we may require input from other consultants like Geotech Engineers, iwi, Heritage NZ or arborists.

Once we have a complete understanding of the site and regulatory constraints be being by preparing design diagrams to identify the key challenges and opportunities of the project. We then begin to test many different approaches against the design brief to find an approach that satisfies both the brief and the demands of the site. This is then presented as a set of sketch plans including site plan, floor plans and perspective views of the house. At this point we are not concerned about materiality or exact sizes of spaces. We are looking for confirmation that the general approach is the right one before resolving further during preliminary design.

At the end of the preliminary design stage we should know with a large degree of certainty, what the building will look like. The preliminary design report includes the first hardline computer drawings of the project including site plans, floor plans sections, elevations and 3D perspectives. Room sizes are dimensioned, door and window sizes noted and the main material choices are presented. At this stage the first energy model (using the passive house planning package - PHPP) is prepared . We also issue a preliminary interactive digital model (BIMx) for the project which clients can explore on their computer or iPad.