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Designing a one-off home involves a series of connected stages, from understanding how you wish to live and what your site can offer, through design, approvals, technical documentation and construction. Each stage resolves a different set of questions, allowing the house to develop from an initial ambition into a carefully considered place to live.
For most clients, commissioning a home is an unfamiliar experience. There may be a clear picture of the life they hope to create, but less certainty about the decisions, drawings and appointments needed to make it possible.
A good process gives those ambitions a practical structure. It establishes what needs to be understood at the beginning, which decisions can develop over time, and where the client’s involvement is most valuable. It also allows design, cost and technical requirements to be considered together, rather than allowing one to advance without the others.
Our journal article A Design Process explores the creative thinking and collaboration behind our work. Here, we explain the stages a client can expect when commissioning a one-off house, following the eight stages we use to describe our services.
Before design begins, it is important to understand whether the site, ambitions and available budget are broadly compatible. Early conversations should establish what you hope to achieve, any significant constraints, and the scope of professional support required. You do not need to arrive with a finished brief or a solution already in mind.
Some clients approach us with a plot they have owned for years; others are considering a purchase or exploring whether to replace an existing house. In each case, early architectural advice can help identify questions worth resolving before a substantial commitment is made.
A beautiful view is only one part of a site’s suitability. Access, ground conditions, drainage, service connections, trees, neighbouring buildings and planning context can all influence what is possible. The surveys and specialist advice needed will depend on the location and the proposals. A topographical survey, for example, provides accurate information about levels and existing features, while ground investigations help the engineer understand conditions below the surface.
The budget should describe the whole project, with a clear distinction between the building contract and other expenditure. Professional fees, surveys, application fees, external works, service connections, tax where applicable, and a contingency all need a place within the overall allowance.
Before proceeding, the architect’s appointment should also make clear which services are included, how fees are charged, and which additional consultants or appointments are likely to be required. This gives the relationship a clear foundation.
The brief brings together how you want to live, the spaces you need, your priorities and the practical limits of the project. At Brown & Brown, client briefing materials and shared images (such as private Pinterest boards) help establish a common understanding before initial design begins.
A room list can be useful, but it rarely explains enough on its own. We want to understand how the household spends time together, where privacy matters, what is missing from the current home, and how those needs might change.
Images can make these conversations easier, particularly when clients find architectural language unfamiliar. Their value often lies in the reason they have been chosen: the quality of light, the feeling of enclosure, the texture of a material, or the relationship between a room and a garden. Understanding that response is more useful than collecting features to reproduce.
At Harmony House, the clients’ grand piano was a particular consideration, with the central atrium designed to accommodate it and its acoustic requirements. Such details show why a brief needs to reach beyond floor area and room names. The things that matter to a client can influence the organisation and character of the whole house.
By the end of this stage, there should be a shared set of priorities against which the emerging design can be tested. The brief can develop as ideas are explored, but it should provide a clear basis for beginning.
We explore concept options and different approaches to the site and brief. The aim is to establish the underlying organisation of the house: where it sits, how spaces relate, how light enters, and how the building connects to its surroundings. Client feedback then informs the next design iteration.
This is the point at which conversations begin to become architecture. Different options might explore a courtyard rather than an open arrangement, a single-storey plan rather than a split-level house, or alternative ways of balancing privacy and outlook.
These choices affect much more than appearance. They influence circulation, structure, energy performance, external space and cost. Considering them together helps identify an approach with enough clarity to carry the project through later decisions.
At Harmony House, the steep site is reflected in a split-level arrangement, with social spaces elevated towards the treetops. The relationship between the occupants, the ground and the outlook is expressed through the plan and section of the building.
Plans, sections, sketches and, where included in the appointment, three-dimensional views can help clients understand the options. Feedback is most useful when it describes how a proposal might support or frustrate daily life. A preference for greater separation between rooms, for example, tells us more than a general reaction to how a drawing looks.
The outcome is an agreed direction for development, with an early understanding of its implications for the brief and budget. It’s important to note that ‘design’ is not finished at this stage. We may very well be actioning client comments and exploring iterations as we move into the detailed design/planning stage to follow. This is natural, and the design and detail of projects have to develop gradually in layers in order to achieve the best and most refined results.
We develop the design in response to client feedback and prepare the planning package, working with a planning consultant if appointed. The proposals become sufficiently resolved to explain the house’s scale, position, appearance and relationship with its setting.
Room arrangements, building form, openings and the broad material approach are developed together. The information required for the application depends on the site and local requirements, and may include specialist reports as well as architectural drawings.
The site’s character remains central. At The Arbour House, retained stone walls help define the outward-facing edge of the property, while the new house creates a protected garden within an urban setting. It is a useful example of how existing features, privacy and landscape can inform a contemporary home.
Before submission, clients should understand the proposal they are submitting, as well as what elements will develop at a later stage, such as interiors. Significant changes to the form or arrangement are generally easier to explore now than after technical design has progressed.
Submission is followed by the Local Authority’s assessment, during which queries or requests for further information may arise. Consent cannot be assumed, and the programme needs to allow for that uncertainty. Any conditions attached to an approval must also be reviewed, including those requiring information or approval before work begins.
Planning considers the acceptability of the proposed development in its location. A building warrant addresses compliance with building regulations. At this stage, the architectural design is developed technically alongside other consultants such as a structural engineer, energy assessor and other consultants as needed.
The house now needs to be explained as a coordinated construction: its structure, walls, roof, floors, insulation, ventilation and drainage, together with the other provisions needed to meet the applicable standards.
For clients, decisions focus particularly on the building envelope: the elements separating inside from outside, including walls, roofs and glazing. These influence comfort, performance and the depth and proportions of the architecture. The emphasis is on establishing how the building works, while many individual products and finishes are resolved through future stages.
Technical design should carry forward the qualities established earlier. A slim roof edge or a level threshold requires careful coordination if it is to be both convincing architecturally and robust in use. Apparent simplicity often depends upon considerable work within the construction.
For a new home in Scotland, the required building warrant must be granted before the relevant building work starts. Elsewhere in the UK, building control procedures and terminology differ, and the approval route should be established for the project’s location.
We prepare the tender and production information, developing materials, finishes and construction details, and coordinating the work of other consultants and specialists. This gives contractors a defined package to price and provides the information needed to carry the design into construction.
Planning drawings explain the proposed development, but do not usually contain enough information to price and construct a bespoke house reliably. A warrant package also serves a different purpose from the fuller documentation needed for tender and construction.
Depending on the agreed scope, construction information may include detailed plans and sections, junction details, schedules, specifications and coordinated information for building services and specialist elements. Where a quantity surveyor is appointed, their pricing documents are coordinated with the design package.
This is also an important period for client decisions. Materials, sanitaryware, lighting and fitted elements need to be resolved to the level required by the tender strategy and programme. Where interior design forms part of the appointment, it should develop alongside the architecture so that spaces, services and finishes support one another. Alongside the Initial Design stage this stage is often described as the point where the most design occurs, but in detail and the minutiae, rather than at a broader conceptual level.
Leaving too many items undefined can make a tender appear more certain than it is. Allowances may be necessary, but clients should understand what they cover and what remains to be selected. Clear information makes comparison more useful and reduces the number of decisions left for a busy construction stage.
We help identify an appropriate tender route, suitable contractors and key construction dates, then issue the tender information, respond to queries and receive returns on the client’s behalf. Selection considers the proposed price alongside capability, availability and the requirements of the project.
Competitive tendering is one route, whilst a negotiated approach with a suitable contractor may be appropriate in other circumstances. The choice should reflect the project’s complexity, the available market and the client’s priorities.
A tender return needs to be understood in detail. Exclusions, qualifications, provisional allowances and proposed alternatives can create significant differences between prices that initially seem comparable. Working with the quantity surveyor where appointed, we help clarify what has been included and identify matters requiring further discussion.
If prices exceed the budget, the next step is a considered review and value engineering process. Changes to scope, specification or construction approach should be assessed for their consequences across the design. A saving in one item can create additional work elsewhere, or remove something that was central to the brief.
Before construction begins, the scope, price basis, programme and building contract need to be agreed, with the required approvals and pre-start arrangements in place. This is the point at which the client commits to delivery on a defined basis, and we prepare the construction contract, which we will administer, for the agreement of the client and contractor.
Under our agreed appointment, we administer the building contract through to Practical Completion, visit the site, respond to contractor queries and deal with payment applications, certificates and other contractual procedures, concluding with the administering of the contract to Final Completion following the end of the Defects Liability Period.
Our usual level of service allows for fortnightly site visits during construction unless otherwise agreed.
Construction brings a different rhythm to the project. Questions become immediate and physical: how a junction meets the work already built, whether a proposed substitution is appropriate, or what an unexpected ground condition means for the next operation.
Site visits allow us to review progress and the work visible at the time against the design information, and to address matters with the contractor. This is a periodic inspection role. The contractor remains responsible for organising and carrying out the works, including workmanship, site management and construction safety.
Client decisions can still arise, but changes now need particular care. Moving a wall or changing a fitting may affect several trades, completed work, cost and the completion date. Proposed changes should be discussed through the agreed communication and contract procedures so their implications can be understood before instruction.
The building contract provides the structure for dealing with these matters. Payment applications are assessed and certificates issued in accordance with its terms, rather than treating each request for payment as an informal arrangement. Throughout construction, the architectural role includes helping the team maintain the relationship between the detailed work and the home the client set out to create.
Working with a contractor whose values and goals are aligned with those of the client and architect is vital, and this is the stage where the benefit is felt most. Key partners on a project keep the desired outcome and design in mind throughout, ensuring that every piece of work or potential variation keeps the build on track.
Practical Completion marks a contractual milestone and the transition towards handover, but some work continues afterwards. During the agreed defects rectification period, relevant defects are addressed, followed by a review and the contractual steps required to bring the project to final completion.
As construction draws to a close, attention turns to inspections, outstanding items, commissioning and the information the client needs to operate and maintain the house. Heating and ventilation systems need to be understood, and manuals, warranties and relevant certificates gathered.
Contractual completion and statutory completion are separate matters. In Scotland, a new house should not be occupied until the local authority has accepted the completion certificate, unless temporary occupation permission has been granted. This needs to be coordinated with the intended moving-in date.
Some defects only become apparent through use. These should be recorded and dealt with through the contract’s procedures. At the end of the agreed rectification period, we revisit the project to assess the appropriate works and progress the remaining contractual completion procedures.
The experience of living in the house also gives another perspective on its success. Our Client Stories include Keith and Helen’s account of Hillview Pavilion. Although an addition to an existing cottage, their project offers a useful reminder of the purpose behind the process: they describe a change in how they live and experience the surrounding landscape.
The RIBA Plan of Work is a wider industry framework, with stages numbered 0 to 7, covering strategic definition, briefing, design, construction, handover and use. Our eight service stages describe the journey in terms relevant to our clients and appointments, and which we’ve found relate directly to the experience of a client undertaking a project. Their numbering is different and should not be read as a direct RIBA stage reference.
In broad terms, our briefing and initial design work relate to RIBA’s early stages, while design development towards planning sits within the progression towards Spatial Coordination. Warrant and construction documentation involve Technical Design, with tendering arranged to suit the procurement route. Construction, handover and aftercare then span the later stages.
The RIBA Plan of Work provides a common language, but the architect’s appointment defines the services for a particular project. Clients should understand the work and decisions included at each milestone, whichever terminology is used.
There is no single reliable timescale for designing and delivering a one-off home. The programme depends on the site, design complexity, surveys, approvals, client decisions, contractor availability and construction method. A useful programme identifies the main stages and dependencies, then develops as more becomes known.
Some activities can overlap, while others depend upon an earlier decision or approval. For example, ecological survey seasons, specialist manufacturing lead times or an unresolved service connection can influence the sequence as much as the architectural work itself.
Clients can help maintain progress by providing clear feedback, agreeing priorities and making decisions when the programme requires them. The design team should make those decision points visible, giving enough information and time for a considered response.
The aim is a programme that allows the important questions to be resolved in the right order, and time spent understanding the site, coordinating the design and preparing clear information can reduce uncertainty during construction.
A successful process depends on a clear brief, regular communication and continuity between design and delivery. Each stage should build on the decisions already made, while allowing new information to be considered carefully. The purpose is to give the client confidence as the project becomes more detailed and more tangible.
There are many drawings, approvals and decisions involved in a one-off house, but they all serve the same ambition: a home that responds closely to its occupants and its place.
At Brown & Brown, we see that continuity as central to our work. From the first conversation to the last construction detail, the task is to carry the qualities that matter through each stage, so they remain present in the completed home.
You can read more about our approach, or explore the creative collaboration behind our work in A Design Process.
