How long does it take to design a house?

What sets the pace of designing a house?

The brief comes first, because every drawing answers to it. The Australian Government's YourHome guide describes the brief as an evolving record of your must-haves, must-avoids and preferences. A brief that is still moving when design starts tends to move the drawings with it.

The site sets the next limit. The YourHome design guide lists the specialists most homes need before a design can firm up. They include a site surveyor for site details and legal boundaries, a geotechnical engineer for soil tests and a structural engineer for building approval. An accredited energy assessor often rates the design for BASIX in NSW, although a smaller single dwelling may qualify for the simpler BASIX DIY method. Each report has its own lead time. A steep block, a heritage setting or tight planning controls also add questions the design has to answer before it can move on.

The number of options matters too. Designers often prepare several concepts for you to weigh against the brief. The guide notes that each extra concept developed may increase design fees. Exploring more options adds design work, which is time well spent only when it brings you closer to a decision.

Which design stages take the time?

The NSW Architects Registration Board's guide to working with your architect describes the design phase as briefing discussions, sketch designs and design development. Contract documentation follows, so the house can be approved, priced and built. Each stage usually starts once you have signed off the one before, so the pace of your decisions shapes the whole timeline. Under the board's standard terms two stages can run at once, although only with your written consent.

The YourHome guide adds a final design stage, where you sign off every aspect of the design before approval and detailed documentation. Changes made after that sign-off are likely to add design or building costs, which is why it pays to give the earlier stages the time they need.

How do approvals fit into design time?

Approval sits inside the design timeline but outside the designer's control. The board lists delays in obtaining council approvals among the factors an architect cannot govern, along with weather and supply problems once building starts.

In NSW a new house can be approved through a complying development certificate from a private certifier where the planning controls allow it. Where they do not, it needs a development application to council, as our guide to choosing between a DA or CDC explains. YourHome suggests seeking planning approval first for complex designs or strict local controls, so any changes the authority asks for are made before the detailed drawings are done. In that case the construction documentation follows approval. A straightforward design can go in as a combined application instead, with one set of plans covering both.

How can you keep the design moving?

The habits that keep a design on track are mostly simple. Settle your budget and your list of priorities before the first meeting. Agree with your household who will make the final call on each decision. Ask your architect for the likely program at the start, since the board's guide suggests discussing the project timeline before the design phase begins.

Give instructions in writing and keep notes of each meeting, which the board recommends because decisions can move quickly. Make changes as early as you can, because a change made late in the design is more likely to carry a cost. Order the survey and soil reports early as well, so the design is never waiting on information about the site.

How we design homes at SHORE

At SHORE Design + Build we begin with the brief and the block, because orientation, fall, outlook and planning controls all shape what a site will carry. We put early numbers against the brief, so the project that leaves this first stage is one we know can be built for its budget.

Our builders sit in the same studio and price the concept as it takes shape, while we refine the budget as each decision lands during design development. That keeps the design from drifting ahead of what the budget can hold, so the drawings we take to approval are drawings we know we can build. We can also start before you buy a site. Tell us about the block and the brief and we will map the design and build process around them.