The Brief
Depending on whether you have gone with an architect or an architectural designer, your brief can be more descriptive or will need to be more direct.
For instance, telling an architect you want a modernist home or a Tuscan Villa will give him a start, but you pay them to come up with ideas in interpreting your brief. An architectural draughtsman may well be able to do this, too, but often will just carry out a design according to what you tell them, i.e. bedrooms here, kitchen there, etc...
Think about how you live now and how you’d like to live. Think about privacy and sun (for good and bad), where the kids will play (inside and outside), how you use your kitchen and how many people need access to the bathroom (do you need two or more?), views to take advantage of and, above all else, how much money you have to spend!
The designer will initially come back with preliminary plans sketched out (usually drawn freehand), followed by developed and well drawn out floorplans and elevations (showing the house itself), followed by final plans after all the discussions and debates have finished.
Important Information: Do NOT rush this process. It’s better to take longer here and get it right, than rush it and regret for the rest of the time you own the house.
The Pope's brief to Michaelangelo...
He did not say: paint the ceiling.
He did not say: paint the ceiling green, blue, black, red, gold and white.
He did not even say: paint biblical scenes on the ceiling, incorporating all or some of the following: God, Adam, angels, cupids, devils and saints.
What he said, was: "You are commissioned to paint our ceiling for the greater glory of God and as a lesson and inspiration to all people. Frescos which depict the creation of the world, the fall, mankind's degradation by sin, the divine waters of the deluge and the preservation of Noah and his family."
