THE BEST ARCHITECTURAL BRIEFS START WITH HOW YOU WANT TO LIVE

Most people think an architectural brief is about room counts, budgets and timelines. And they're right, it is. But it’s also only half of the brief.

At Lloyd Hartley, the part that we're most interested in starts after we’ve shut down the spreadsheet and poured the coffee.

By the time people come to us, they've usually spent months thinking about what they want from their build. They've ruled ideas in and out, collected inspiration, and started picturing what life in their new home could look like.

Our job is to understand what's driving those choices before they’re set in stone - or concrete, as the case may be.

For that reason, our briefing process involves asking a lot of questions. Not to challenge your ideas, but because experience has taught us that the good stuff - the details that help us design a home that’s an extension of yourself - are usually found in the workings that got you to the answer, not in the answer itself.

As well as asking how many living areas you need, we want you to tell us what happens when the whole family comes over. Instead of talking about an extra bedroom, we ask who stays, how often, and what you want that experience to feel like.

Following on from that, we’ll do a “perfect day” **exercise, where we ask you to walk us through how you’d spend an ideal day at home. Maybe the day starts in the kitchen, enjoying the morning sun before the house wakes up. Maybe it's everyone gone, the fire going, and a book at the end of the day.

We’re not really talking about the house anymore, we’re tuning in on the people who’ll be living there.

That's the exciting part, and it's the reason we still enjoy those early conversations as much as we do. Because by the time we finish the briefing process and begin to sketch ideas, we're designing with a complete understanding of who you are, how you want to live, and all the idiosyncrasies that make a home yours.

We know starting things can be tricky, which is why we have a briefing file available for you to Download and edit to your heart’s content, and a Floor Area Schedule Exploration to map out the spaces you'd like and roughly how much room they'll take. When you’re ready to take the next step, get in touch, and we'll help you tease out the rest.