Early design and feasibility advice for homeowners looking to extend their homes
Over the next 3 months our Senior Architect David Symons will be looking at home extensions, in particular the planning and design process for extending or remodelling your home. The first in the series will look at the early stages of the project and deciding whether extending is right for you. The second in the series will look at the planning constraints and opportunities for making changes to your home, whilst the final in the series will delve into the technical design and construction process for managing the impacts of your home becoming a construction site.
As a homeowner you will know your property better than anyone. Often having spent years living in the home and thinking over every detail and what works or doesn’t work for you, you will have very clear ideas about the spaces you are missing and what you are seeking to gain with a home extension project. You may even have an idea of the location, size and type of extension you want before engaging with us.
However, before jumping straight into designing an extension and getting prices from builders – our job as architects at this early stage is to work with you to do the extra thinking to hopefully save you cost, time and stress by making sure you are getting exactly what you need from the project.
We call this stage the feasibility or concept design stage and our focus is to understand what is driving the desire to extend. Are you looking for more space? A more functional layout? Or a new way of living in your home? In some cases simply re-configuring your existing internal layout can allow you to achieve all of these goals with significantly less cost.
Understanding your current layout and what works or doesn’t work in terms of connectivity between spaces (flow), light and useability can all help inform the best interventions to improve your home.
Home Extensions- Gallery
At the feasibility stage we primarily use quick and simple plan diagram drawings using coloured block shapes like Tetris tiles to test as many layout options as possible to help you visualise the potential of your existing space and any extended areas.
We think about questions like; Does the kitchen work best to the front or rear of the house? Would you benefit from a garden view or driveway view from the living space? Are you looking for more intimate ‘cellular’ rooms or large open plan spaces? How can we efficiently stack drainage for WCs, kitchens and bathrooms for ease of construction? Where can we best group bedrooms for great outlook and maintaining privacy? Do master bedrooms want privacy and separation from children’s or guest bedrooms or do we want a close relationship between these spaces?
We accompany the 2D diagrams with sketchy external 3D visuals to help give you a sense of what your home could look like for each option.
Stripping back the detail at the early stage helps focus our minds on the important early key decisions and stops us from getting bogged down in the detail before we know the best direction of travel.
At this stage our in-house planning and heritage consultants will also get involve with the project as necessary to assess each proposed option to confirm any planning risks or constraints.
These simple sketch studies can show you what is achievable for your home within your budget before investing in more detailed drawings.
Balancing your budget with your vision for the project is key at the early design stage. We can work with you to calculate indicative build costs based on standard price per sqm rates relative to your desired level of finish. With a potential cost in hand, we also often reach out to our network of experienced local estate agents for early conversations for advice in relation to the potential value of your finished project. Not all projects add equal end value to your home. If we are talking about your forever home, then potential sale returns are unlikely to be your motivation for extending or remodelling your home. However, it is always useful to think about the ceiling prices in your area to calibrate the amount of investment you are making and to make sure every penny spent is working as hard as possible for you.
Whether you are thinking about a small kitchen extension, or a whole home re-model early design input can help you make informed decisions with confidence. Our team of experienced architects and designers have worked transforming hundreds of homes and can help you balance your ambition and ideas with the practical realities of budget and construction to create beautiful and effective solutions.
If you’re thinking about a home extension project – get in touch with our team at enquiries@planningdesign.co.uk or call us on 01332 347 371.
Also, look out for next month’s article all about the planning stage of your home extension project. Sign up to our newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out!
