Schematic Designs
As part of our on-going series breaking down our services and trying to explain them in common language for clients, today we’re moving into schematic designs. If you want to step back a step to the first part of most jobs, you can go to our post on Record Drawings.
Almost every job will have some version of this. The broadest possible definition is a basic design that illustrates the major features without working out all of the details. Schematic designs won’t have the structure completely sorted out. We won’t have figured out the thermal envelope or selected the specific windows. There are definitely levels here, and there are two types on most of our proposals.
Initial Schematic Designs
These are the first attempts at figuring out what the client can do. We have done our basic code compliance research. We have figured out what is allowed. We have taken their wishlist and come up with options. However, we often say that we don’t get to build most of our ideas, and the reason is that we often come up with multiple solutions to the design brief to explore options.
Most of the time, unless the client has come to us with a very specific design they want to use, we will generate multiple options. The ideas we have will be spread across those options. For this reason, we don’t expect the eventual feedback to be, we love option three, just do that. Usually, it’s, we love the roof from option two, the kitchen in option one, the windows in option 4, and when we think about the questions you posed, we want the deck design to be totally different than we originally thought. This is fine, this is part of the process. Usually our first design will be the closest to our original discussions, and often that will be the one the client chooses because it’s closest to their pre-conceptions of what they want. And that is fine, it is both their house, and they have generally been thinking about this for a long time before they come to us. In the end, our ideas are there to help you create the best version of your vision and to sort out what really is most important to you in a design.
Like we said earlier, almost every project has some version of this. The point is to get the designs into our systems, formatted editing and presentation. Even if the first step is to perfectly copy a design you brought in to us from somewhere, we will still have initial schematic designs. We do tailor the fees in our proposal for each job, so the less that is expected of us, the cheaper this process would be, but there’s always some basic set up.
Design Development
This is the next phase of the schematic designs. This is where we take your feedback and develop the designs, narrowing down the options until we’re quibbling over something like window trim. Not every project needs or uses this. Generally speaking, the more you come to the table with already decided, the less there is to revise and re-present.
One unique feature of this part of the design process is that our proposals are generally designed to be flexible. They are designed to absorb more or less rounds of redesign because you’ll never know before you get into it how many it will really take. We will provide an estimated number based on our experience, but we will bill for what is used either way. So while this amount isn’t fixed, it is very easily calculable. It’s also nominal compared to trying to move forward without settling the design. It’s a lot cheaper to modify the design at this point, with moderate details. The farther along we go, the harder it gets to do. If major changes happen during the construction drawing phase, that increases the difficulty and chances of there being a drawing conflict. It’s even worse if it happens during construction. Some clients get scared about extra rounds of revisions, but it’s your cheapest option to spend more time than expected fixing it here than at any time moving forward.
Deliverables
Deliverables can vary greatly. Some projects will require more to get a client to see or approve the design. Some require more just to explain what the heck we’re thinking. Some projects will make us look at the structure or occupancy or fire ratings in this stage in a way that we might not normally need to. So it’s hard to promise exactly what you will get. However, for most projects, drawings like those below are what we provide. It consists of two dimensional plans and elevations with basic labels. This allows us to be very flexible in making modifications and usually works to get the point across. Sometimes, we do massing models or even photo realistic renders, but those are really separate services usually that would be broken out in the proposal and we’ll cover in a later post.
