Black Pine Discovery Review
DESIGN PATHWAY
How the Discovery Review saved the day for John & Katherine….
John & Katherine were looking to alter & extend their family home. They thought they had a good idea about what they wanted to achieve, but there was a particularly tricky part of the design that they couldn’t see a solution too. They approached an Architectural Designer hoping for a solution. The designer jumped straight into the design work and after considerable time & effort, came back with the answer to their problem.
The dilemma was, the proposed solution didn’t address the initial need and created a number of other issues that weren’t apparent in the first place.
John & Katherine were upset and felt that the designer had delayed the project and wasted their money (the greater portion of their design budget was now gone!). The designer was upset that they’d ‘solved the problem’ asked for and felt their design skills were not appreciated. Things were not going well, should they part ways now and write off the design investment to ‘experience’, or soldier on in a relationship that was tepid at best?
John & Katherine were gutted. Not only had they spent considerable time & effort themselves trying to find a solution, they had paid a not-insubstantial fee for a design that created a number of other problems!
The true cause of the problem wasn’t that the design solution was wrong, it was that insufficient time & effort was spent on the pre-design stage or the ‘Brief’. Without a clear sense of direction and clearly identified destination, they had travelled to the wrong place!
This is not an uncommon experience and to ensure that our clients avoid it, we have developed the Black Pine Discovery Review. We start every project with this review.
The Discovery Review covers three critical areas that need to be addressed BEFORE design work begins:
1/ Dig deep into your needs & desires, to identify how you will know the project has been a success.
2/ Provide us both with a chance to get to know each other, before committing to the design work.
3/ Make a thorough assessment of the constraints & opportunities that your site & project present
All this is packaged into a concise report that can be used by Black Pine (or any other Architect, should we decide not to continue working together) as a guide on the design journey.
When it came to John & Katherine’s next house project, they took their learnings on their first home and engaged Black Pine Architects to undertake a Discovery Review first.
The Discovery Review provided them with guidance to fully investigate their needs and helped clarify the key outcomes that would ensure a successful project.
The review identified the constraints associated with their project, including legal, Geotechnical and also constraints caused by available infrastructure.
Most importantly the Black Pine Discovery Review provided them with guidance on the likely cost & time implications of their proposed project, BEFORE they started on design work. (Decisions made at the beginning of a project are the cheapest, as time goes on, any changes get progressively more expensive to make!)
By undertaking the Discovery Review at the beginning of the project, John & Katherine saved themselves a fortune in misdirected fees, made sure that the effort put into the design phase was spent heading in the right direction and ensured that the outcome of the project provided them the benefits they really desired.
Black Pine Discovery.
If you are considering a construction project and think the Discovery Review would add value, contact us today.
