Process Outline.
Every project begins by understanding the home and the life it will hold.
Before proposing any changes, I study the house as it exists, the life taking place within it, and the conditions that led you to consider changing it.
The work is divided into three stages. Each has its own purpose, deliverable, and conclusion. Some projects end after the Foreword Consultation. Others require a Spatial Study. A limited number continue as Re-authored Home commissions.
Together, the stages allow the project to develop with clarity, without committing you to more work than the house requires.
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Every home begins with an introduction.
Before any changes are made to your home, I want to understand the house as it exists, the life taking place inside it, and what has caused you to consider changing it.
I call this first engagement the Foreword Consultation because it gives you the opportunity to introduce the house to me. You tell me its history, what you value about it, where daily life feels difficult, and what you hope the house could make possible. I then study those concerns in relation to the architecture, layout, systems, site, budget, and likely scale of intervention.
The purpose is to determine what project you actually have before time and money are committed to designing or building it.
The Foreword Consultation concludes with a written Foreword Brief identifying the central project question, important constraints, recommended priorities, and the next step I believe is appropriate. Once you receive your Foreword Brief, there is no obligation to continue into a Spatial Study.
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Once the home has been introduced, it is studied.
The Foreword Consultation defines the question the project needs to resolve. The Spatial Study takes that question into the plan.
I document the relevant existing conditions, develop and test possible arrangements, and study how each decision affects the rest of the home. This includes how people move through it, where they gather and retreat, how rooms relate to one another, what deserves to remain, and where change would allow the house to better support the life taking place inside it.
Depending on what the Foreword Consultation reveals, the study concludes with one to two recommended spatial directions, supported by the drawings and reasoning needed to understand what should change and why. This direction is established before the project moves into developed design, engineering, pricing, permitting, or construction.
A Spatial Study is a complete commission and may be the conclusion of our work together. When a project continues into a Re-authored Home, the study becomes the foundation for the work that follows.
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Once the home has been studied, it can be re-authored.
A Re-authored Home begins with the direction established through the Spatial Study. I continue developing the project through the architectural, material, technical, and construction decisions required to realize it.
Depending on the agreed scope, this may include developing the selected plan, resolving rooms, openings, built-ins, materials, and transitions, coordinating the architects, engineers, contractors, and trades involved, and remaining engaged as the work is priced, documented, permitted, and built.
The purpose is to preserve the reasoning established in the study as the project moves through the practical decisions that determine how the finished home works and feels.
Re-authored Home commissions are offered selectively after the Spatial Study. Continuing into this stage is a separate decision based on the project, the level of involvement required, alignment with the practice, and available capacity.