Services

design

Concept Design involves locating the building on the site, considering sun, views, wind shelter, driveway access, service areas, outdoor living, gardens, utilities and town planning constraints. Working through this we would present our ideas of site layout and floor plans to you for consideration.

Preliminary Design involves working up those concepts to give the building a 3-dimensional form, presenting this to you with plans, elevations and sketches.

Developed Design refines the planning and elevations according to our discussions and is presented to you in dimensioned plans, elevations and schematic cross section(s) and/or artist’s impression. Often a Resource Consent is required for the project and these drawings will form the basis of that application.

Cost Estimates Note also that at the end of the Preliminary or Developed Design stage a brief specification of construction elements can be agreed with you to assist an independent quantity surveyor in preparing a cost estimate based on the drawings so far. 

documentation

The Detailed Design stage provides a level of documentation that clearly defines all architectural elements required to construct the building in drawings and specifications, and co-ordinates with the detail design of secondary consultants (typically a structural engineer and any specialists such as geotechnical or drainage engineers, kitchen or interior designers, etc., should they be involved).

The documentation is suitable for lodging for a Building Consent and tailored to suit the agreed Construction Contract proposed (e.g. requesting tenders from three contractors or negotiating a price with one).
The drawings may include internal layout plans and elevations of the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen sufficient to give a general, co-ordinated appearance of style and materials.  More bespoke construction details for this or any other cabinetry can be provided if you do not wish to work directly with a kitchen designer or joinery fabricator on stock items that can be selected or adapted to suit your needs.

delivery

To ensure you get the design as documented we encourage you to engage us for the following services also:

Procurement - reviewing and preparing documentation for tender with you including insurance details, method of tender, bond, liquidated damages etc.; issuing documents for tender then reviewing the tenders for compliance with the tender documents and responding to technical options offered; notifying the tenderers of your decision and arranging signing of the Contract Documents between yourselves and the successful tenderer.

Administration of the Contract Works - the day-to-day fielding of site and fabricator queries, review of shop drawings, preparation of minutes and any instructions to the contractor, clarification of items in the documentation and provision of supplementary details as necessary to amplify the details, preparation of progress certificates (for payment purposes), generating snagging (defects) lists, practical completion certificates and acting on your behalf in seeking from council a Certificate of Code Compliance.

Observation of the Contract Works - periodic visits to the site to monitor the progress and quality of the job, attendance to site meetings, assistance to the contractor in interpreting the drawings, and observation of any noticeable deviation from the contract documents.

renovations

If your project involves additions and alterations the design, documentation and delivery stages will be similar to that for a new home but before we start we will need accurate As-Built Drawings of your home as a base point. You may already have drawings of the house either from the previous owner, original designer or council's property file and these are always a great help, but even then we will need to confirm the home was built exactly to these drawings by measuring up on site (checking simple things like the size of a room and the location and size of a door or window for instance). We have the ability in our office to measure and draw-up your As-Built Drawings (floor plans and elevations) from scratch but can also out-source part or all of this work to trusted individuals if necessary.

interior design

We can provide interior design, materials and colour selection services or work with your chosen interior designer.  On commercial projects we often provide this service along with marketing materials for pre-sales such as colour/material sample boards and coloured floor plans.
 

kitchen and bathroom design

We can provide layout plans and elevations of the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen sufficient to give a general, co-ordinated appearance of function, style and materials or work with your selected kitchen designer. More bespoke construction details for this or any other cabinetry are simply an extension of this work which we can offer if it is appropriate to the project and budget.

commercial design-build

Many of our larger projects have been the result of working alongside reputable construction companies as part of the design and construction team rather than being engaged directly by the client, or being novated to those companies after producing the initial concepts for our client. Companies we have worked with in the past include Kalmar Construction in New Zealand, Ca'Bella Pacific in Tonga and Fletcher Construction South Pacific most recently in Samoa and American Samoa.