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Microphone: Hi, welcome to the Smart Living Spaces podcast. I'm your host, Sharon Robinson. I am the author of this book, Babe Let's Build a House, that I've based this podcast on. And this is episode six. So, in this episode six, we cover chapter six in the book. this is the process from concept to completion. This is the process that a registered architect here in New Zealand with the NZIA or with a designer that's that's Member of ADNZ, the Architectural Designers Association of New Zealand, what they would probably cover. Now, in episode seven, I'll cover the process that I use, which is it's an adaptation of this process. but this is this is the initial con this is this is the process so you can get an idea and some context for all of this. Now, why write about this? Well, firstly, many people just ring me up and say, how much to draw plans? Now plans it sounds like a product, but actually architecture is a process. And so during that process, what we want to do is we want to establish a brief. We want to establish the vision of that brief, and then we want to link it with some instructions on how to build it on site. And then we also want to tie it up with l the legalities for mortgages and contracts with your builder. So it's not just also legalities in terms of complying with the building code. so plans actually become a legal document when they are incorporated into a building contract for the works to take place. So my one of my old bosses, I he's one of my favorite bosses I've ever worked for, he he always explains explains plans as being instructions, but there's a process that needs to happen first before you can get to those instructions. So I'll explain all of those stages and then what role they play in that. Now, this matters because our homes are our largest financial ass asset for many of us that we have in our lifetime. It's the largest bill we'll ever pay. It's the longest time we'll ever take to pay that bill off. So having careful consideration right through this process and using it to create something that's going to hold its value and serve its purpose well for us at the end of it is really important. So this episode is going to cover this NZIA process that we use. Just to tell you that the NZIA, the word architect is actually a registered term by the NZIA. So, you cannot call yourself an architect in New Zealand unless you're registered with the New Zealand Institute of Architects. And that's actually a trademarked term right around the world. So just to make that clear, because some people, some people don't understand the difference. And if you go back into one of my previous episodes where I discussed the difference between architect, designer, and draftsperson. So Quick overview, the stages that we'll cover is the pre-design or the brief stage, the preliminary design stage, the sketch design, the concept design stage, the develop design, the detailed design stage, the working drawings, the procurement, the contract
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administration, and then the completion of that. So they all pay a part, and so this is the traditional way that it is being done. So the first stage is the predesign or brief stage. Now, some architects and some designers don't charge for this. They're happy to give you an hour of their time for a meeting. I do, but I'll explain that in episode seven and I'll explain why. So this is where you talk about brief, budget, you give them a list of aspirations. One of the shortcomings I find in a very short brief or pre design stage is that often aspirations are just noted and budgets are assumed. So what you really want to do is have a really robust. bust meeting about budget, what it includes, what it excludes, what it's relating to, build budget or project budget. I cover the difference between the two in a later episode too. So because the budget can be a major glitch that happens early on. So this is this is just basically a brief a brief establishment of the project. And from that point then what you do is you end up with moving further into the next stage, which is the preliminary design. Now the part of the point of preliminary design in an NZIA practice is to establish feasibility around the site. So you're doing site analysis, you're doing, you're looking at planning rules, you're looking at the the planning restrictions, the site opportunities, the site challenges of that particular site. They may be loose sketches, you may get some loose floor floor plans, but essentially at this stage it's still very much about site feasibility. So that's To me, a lot of part of establishing the brief of what we're doing. The next stage is sketch design. This is where you start to get spatial relationships, starting to look at how rooms relate to each other, a little bit of form. It's building on that brief, it's building on that preliminary design. And it's it's starting to put together what could resemble a house very, very loosely. A lot of traditional NZIA practices do this stage in hand sketches. So they vary, they just lots of ideas. We're tuning through what can work, what what won't, what what we think might. So it's it's a threshing around of ideas. the next stage, and and you'll have meetings with your architect or designer through all of these stages. The next stage is the concept design stage. Now in the NZIA registered practices that I have worked at before I started my own practice in 2014, would this is typically the stage where it goes from hand sketches to being on the computer. and start to be putting into some three-dimensional capable programs. Traditionally, this is also in a large practice where it goes from the lead architect to then moving to a draftsperson or an architectural technician or an architectural designer. So we're starting to put this into a 3D form. We're trying to look at what this is going to look like. Spatially, you'll get probably more renders, you'll get more detailed floor plans, you'll get detailed elevations. And of course the accuracy of it is going to improve because we're now putting it onto a computer. Then once you've got this massing sorted, this is so this is the visualization of what you're wanting to create. You then move into a stage called develop design. And this is the stage where you're developing sections, you're starting to talk to other consultants who you need to bring on board. It's also as you go through it, it's sort of a detailed concept. This is the stage where you can go to a QS to get a high-level cost estimate to say this was our idea, this was our budget, this is where we've got to. We've moved through all of this visualization stage. How much is it do you think this is going to cost just to price check it? This stage is still quite fluid. So before you jump into the next stage, what you want to do is have that bre that budget checked and any changes that you need to make to that design, it's prudent to make them now. Because you have enough detail to have a little bit more assurity in terms of cost, but you also have enough flexibility to make those changes in an affordable way. So if your project is needing to go for resource consent, that's planning approval. So there's two different types of approval that you can get from council. One is planning planning approval, which is called resource consent, the other is called building approval, which is the building consent. Not every project requires build resource consent. Every project requires building consent. So if your project has broken those planning rules that we have established in that feasibility stage, in that preliminary design stage, and then you're going to need to go for resource consent, and the develop design stage is a really good design, it's good stage to go for that. You want to know that the council are going to say yes to your project before you dive into the the super intense, detailed, expensive stage of an architectural design service. So say you've got your resource consent or you don't need it, you've got your vision, you're very happy with it, you know, you've done a budget check, it's in alignment, you've talked to all the other people that now need to contribute into your project, whether they are landscape designers, whether they are acoustic specialists, whether they are interior designers, whether they're structural engineers, whether they're geotech engineers, And and planners, you've got all of those people. They've all been briefed. They know what they need to do. The plans have sufficient detail, have sufficient detail for them to be able to scope their role in this project sufficiently. Now we're able to move into the more detailed stage. This is the nuts and bolts instruction stage. So we've got the vision sorted. Developed design is the link between the conceptual vision and then the detailed design stage. Now, this stage is called. Detailed design stage or building consent stage. Some people call it working drawing stage. This is
essentially when the plans are there are calculations are done, the nitty-gritty nuts and bolts are worked out, how these how this whole building goes together. All of the information is provided to demonstrate that your design actually complies with the building code. And this is a set of instructions that the builder and other trades are going to use to price your job and then to build your job. And it forms the basis of those contractual documents that are then going to be sent to your bank for lending approval and form the basis of all of the contractual agreements past this point because this is a very detailed set of instructions and scope. It's roughly about 50% of an architectural fee. So people like to think that a lot about what we do is Is is drawing pretty pictures. that's a that's a big part, that's the big picture visualization stage. But this is the really important stage to now bring your builder into into the scope of the project and the understanding of the project. some firms will then have a stage called working drawings. This takes into account council RFIs. it will develop your your drawings in more detail to reflect like bathroom elevations and kitchen elevations, kitchen design if you've Got an interior designer on board, they'll play their part in this. That kind of information is quite important when you've got extensive tiling and you want an accurate quote from like a tiler. Also get things like plumbing specifications chosen, light fittings chosen, switch types. So when your electrician's pricing for your job, he knows exactly what or she knows exactly what they're pricing for. They're not just putting a generic sum in there because that could end up with budget issues when you're on site, particularly if your lending is really tight. any shop drawings, if you're using any off-site products, this is the this is also the set of drawings because you can run them concurrently with building consent, because we're trying to fast track this. So while your project's in for building consent, they say 20 working days, I say six to eight weeks at the least. So you can get other people working in the background getting ready for this construction and putting this detail together for your builder so you can get an accurate price and an accurate contract for you. It also covers any RFIs and any adjustments to the drawings that council have requested. If you are going for HomeStar or Passive House, I do cover Passive House and Homestar in episode eight and nine. if you are going for passive house or home star, this is the stage where your consultant, whether it's a passive house consultant, whether your architect's a passive house designer or your home star designer and assessor, Would then have that documentation to be able to submit that for a design certification. So each of those systems have a design and a built certification. The built is to prove that what was designed, what was built was actually in alignment with what was
certified in the design. So this is the stage where you can do that too. Also, additional information like airtightness details. Details that council might not necessarily require to evaluate for building consent, but that your builder will find really helpful on site. So that is the working drawings. Some of that stage, the building consent and working drawing stages on some projects can be merged together completely at the discretion of the practice, and obviously it is highly dependent upon the nature of the project that you are doing. So that can be split or can be put together. The eighth stage in a traditional NZIA practice process would be the procurement or tendering. Now, I'm not a fan of tendering. I have said in in earlier episodes, I'm really big on relationships and building trust and having collaboration. That is a very hard thing. You can't get collaboration without the trust. And having a builder on board early on in a design consultation for me is fundamental in building that relationship, building that trust and getting that collaboration. But some practices like to tender this project to three or four other two to three or four builders. So this is the stage where those documents will be sent out. They'll be sent out to those four, say three or four builders. They'll go and try and price it with all of their subbies with the specification, and those tenders will come back into your architects practice. An analysis then needs to be run on all of those tenders because people tend to put price allocations in different sections, even though you can give them a list of sections to price against. And sometimes they haven't actually quite priced what was on the plans and apples for apples. So you need, you need an intense evaluation stage. So something that some people may not be so much aware of is that tendering might get you the cheapest price, but you still have to invest quite robustly in the process of evaluating those tenders against one another. And that's going to take some money too from your architect or your designer because what you want to make sure is that you're not just accepting the quote that's the cheapest and then finding out there's been stuff that has been missed. So that's the purpose of that process that that stage. That is if you're tendering. If you're negotiating with your builder, then that's obviously not a problem. then we have Then we have contract administration or observation. So I'll just explain what the difference is between the two. So when you're doing contract administration as an architect, you are using the NZIA agreement that the builder signs and the client signs, or you as a client signs with your builder. So it's a it's an architect of administrated contract. And There are obligations under that contract that your architect has to carry out. Regular site visits, issuing payment certificates is fundamentally the big one. So, what will happen is the builder will do a certain amount on site,
he will then submit or she will submit a progress claim to your architect. Your architect will evaluate is the work that's been done on site reflectant in this payment claim? Are they equal with each other? If you have A requirement in your mortgage lending. Some banks will then require you to have an independent surveyor to come in and take a look at the building works and evaluate the the and sign off on the progress claim because obviously the bank will then release the funds for you to be able to pay the builder, whether they're paying the builder directly or paying you to pay the builder. So the progress claim from the architects fundamental in all of that. They visit your site. every couple of weeks, site meetings. they they list and and keep track of all of the variations. if you want to change something on site, a variation will be sent to a request will be sent to your builder. Your builder will put a a price against it and then when you say yes, the the the architect will then release a will approve that a variation so that then the builder will go ahead and and commit it into his scope of works and he will tell you this is going to mean that our program's pushed out by s by so many days or so many weeks and there's an increase in price for this or there very seldom is there a decrease in price, but say a bit. So that's the role of contract admin. Contract observation is a step down from that. So that means that the contract is direct to the builder and the client. The architect is not using an NZIA contract and their role is there to support, to go onto site for regular meetings. To obviously advise on any challenges or changes, answer answer any questions, support where they need to, and also just keep track on any building consent amendments. Now, in this stage, if you are doing passive house or homestar, you are going to be wanting to take your assessor or your passive house architect or passive house consultant along with you because during if if Your architect is a passive house designer and is a home star designer and assessor. This is really easy because we just merge it into the contract administration or the contract observation. But this is where you also then collate all of that evidence for that built certification with passive house. I will go into more detail of this in episode eight and episode nine. So contract admin or contract or observation is there to keep track of the budget of all of the changes. an offer support on site two with the added bit with contract administration taking care of the payment claims. That's really basically loosely what it is. And then there's the completion stage, which is stage 10. This is when defix inspections are taking place, any things that need to be tidied up, the issue of any retentions that have been applied to the contract. Sometimes a set amount of money is held back off every single payment claim till the end, and then Retentions are released over certain periods of time after
that. If you're doing Homestar and Passive House, this is the stage where you will apply for your build rating. If you have taken out a mortgage that's giving you an interest rate reduction because it's passive house and or homestar, there are those options. Again, I'll cover that in more detail. Then that is the stage where you'll be wanting that certification to come through. Now, just and just on building consent and CCC, which is certificate code of completion, it's actually a homeowner's responsibility legally to obtain building consent, but your architect or architectural designer will apply for that on your behalf typically. And it's also your responsibility to get certificate code completion or CCC, because that states that what is built on the site still complies with the building code, so it's legal, it complies with the drawings that were issued and approved, so it's legal. But many builders apply for that CCC on behalf of their clients. So this is a very traditional process. This is used by large practices practices typically because we'll have more than one person working on your project and their projects tend to be a bit more larger and more complex. Some stages might apply to you, some stages might not. That's a conversation to have with those practices. But that in a nutshell is just what the what the process is under under a traditional NZIA practice. So as I said, it is about taking the brief establishment, so the project plan is what I would call it, with that initial brief or meeting that you'd have with your architect, whether you pay for it or not, and then that preliminary design with that site investigation. That's the feasibility project plan of it. You then move into the sketch design and the concept design and the preliminary Is it sketch design and concept design? That's the formation of the vision that you're wanting to create. It's taking the aspirations and putting them into a virtual vision. The develop design is that link between the vision and then the instructions. And then you go through this really intense stage of nuts and bolts detailing for the building consent documentation or working drawings or what some practices call detailed design. Okay. and then you can go into the contractual and the pricing part of it with the procurement and then the signing of the contracts before you start on site. So homestown passive house certifications, it's really quite important to identify those early on so to see that you can weave it through, whether it's with consultants or whether the practice that you're working with can do passive house and homestar, to weave it through the process so that it works with those stages. That is a traditional NZIA type way of doing things. I'm going to explain in the next episode, episode seven, how I do things. Now it's not radically different, but it is very much simpler simplified. And the reason why I can simplify it is because I'm a sole practitioner. So I'm the one in the meetings with the client, writing all the reports, doing the design work, knowing how the templates work, I know how to use all the tools. I'm also a certified passive house designer. and a home style designer and assessor. So I'm able to simplify all of that just a little bit. But I will cover that in more detail in episode seven. So that is all that I have got for you today. Thank you very much and I'll catch you next time.