This represents a typical Construction Drawing set for a simple house minus a site plan. It represents a bit over 100 hours of labor. Thought y’all might be interested. A more complete set would have framing on a separate sheet, Interior elevations at least of the kitchen and bathrooms, a site plan, Materials schedules usually called out on the floor plans, and separate electrical plans.
This is a sketch that represents nicely how I often start a project. It is a combination of floor plan, diagram, brainstorming, and notated thoughts. A very streamlined shorthand. Ten years ago my process was more traditional but how I work and think continues to evolve. This sketch is a good representation of this. Preceding the drawing was a site visit, meeting the potential clients to hear what they had in mind and seeing a few images that sparked their interest. A few nights later all that was simmering in the back of my brain came to a boil and I closed my eyes for an hour and laid out a basic design approach in my head which ranged from identifying basic relationships between spaces and the site to specific potential “vignettes” and “details” that could become a meaningful part of the design. The advantage and even necessity of doing this in my head with my eyes closed seems to be that it eliminates the filter of paper and pencil and the inevitable editing which occurs at that stage. I allow myself completely free association with no hierarchy of process – plans, details, parti, spatial relationships, etc. are all given equal importance in this process. This usually seems to happen before falling asleep at night and the next morning I am able to pick up a pad and get it all down in this shorthand. So here is a truly unedited view into the process.
I tooled around the web and found a few informative sites relating to hiring an architect. Bob Vila.com, eHow, and Contractors.com
Add these to my post “A Good Architect” and it should say about ninety percent of what I would say if left to ramble on for an hour or so. I like potential clients to call people who I have recently worked with to get a sense of what I do. Few people have any idea how involved it can be and why it’s so worth it.
