CharlieKLP

this is amazing, exactly what I’m looking for! it’s not often you get actual help on a forum ty.

Where I work it costs the same for a technician or a designer, or an architect who designs (ie me) Maybe we need to be clearer about who gets what service? It just feels like everyone who self builds doesn’t want a designer.

It gives me hope that people like you are out there! I’m not looking to force my ideas on someone, I just want people open to designing together. Every time people draw me things to trace a part of me dies inside. I try to fix things they send me, but you can fix things that are wrong from the start.

I do think the worst is over now hopefully. It was a supply issue rather than a worldwide cost problem.

Do you think there’s any way I could persuade people to be more open to nicer design, like how you present the design or something like that. I sometimes think I don’t explain things well enough.

How can I either persuade them not to build such monstrosities or feel better about contributing to the awful things they want to build? This is particularly strong in the self build market, I just want to design people beautiful houses, but no one seems to want that, why? All they seem to want is a vanity project where they design their own houses with no design skill or knowledge. How can I improve things?

I have had this recently too, just refusing the permission and not allowing time for a bat survey or conditioning it. I wouldn’t start without permission, anything can happen. The planner might change jobs and you get someone who’s even more unhelpful.

Hi Wuey! Fantastic stuff! I’ve done a few ICF houses and I hope you are ready to make the most of this exiting building method. It’s really underrated and utilised.

There’s already insulation present in the timber frame right? like you say, air tightness is important, I’d be getting new windows.

good question! 4 inches is too thick, insulation board is about half that. Assuming you don’t live in the Arctic circle

You were very lucky to get a pre-planning meeting. I wouldn’t hold my breath for something in writing and even so, it will just be a list of standard planning things. Like Damo says, you’re probably at the bottom of the pile on this. A pre-app is not formally binding in any way, so my advice would be to get a planning appraisal from a planning consultant instead. You can get free ones if you look around. Google “free planning appraisal”.

Oh no I work to brick dimensions, it just happens that when you fill mortar in real life it has a bit of difference to it depending on the bricklayer. It’s usually ok on the windows but it adds up. We always draw the bricks to the right size, and we always end up with cut bricks. ...it could be what Peter says also.

You can blame architects for many things, but this seems like the fault of bricklayers.

Oops sorry wrong thread. Are you printing from CAD op? you need to print them to scale from there, not ‘fit to page’.

oh that would be lovely yes please.

Can I make suggestions if ETC is going to fix it ? The new designs seem to be just as dominant as the one that got slammed by the planners. I think you have at least one too many bedrooms upstairs, evidenced by the fact one is overlooking and won’t have openable windows. Solar tunnels, or at least this amount of them is also a sign that you have a dark and gloomy blob for a house. I think you need to make some of the extension single storey and manage your aspirations a bit.

I do like the ideas that are in it, but they are missing some grounding. The more I look at the angle, the more awkward I find it. These are things I would have done before my dreams were ruined by reality, you can tell the way they haven’t made the WC doors open outwards for building regulations that they are creative, but inexperienced.

I’d also take this design and give it to a good technician for a look over before planning. It’s lovely and full of ideas, but some of them need to be sorted out and priced. I really love design in general, but it’s worth nothing if it can’t be built. I also don’t believe in curved roofs, they are architect dreams.

Customers keep saying to me ‘my drawings are terrible’! No, they aren’t, the fact that you’re drawing is terrible!!! Please let them make suggestions to you, that’s what you’re paying for. Designing yourself results in them being lazy and not thinking, if you sent me this I’d just copy it and look for something more interesting to do.

Is this another case of the client doing designs and the ‘designer’ (this can’t possibly be an architect?) just doing what you say and taking your money. You have a lovely existing house please don’t do this or let this designer scam you. Find someone half good and stop drawing things yourself.

Do you think including building regs? My guess is 15k and *then* building regs lol I wouldn’t do 3Ds for free.

Hey @Indy could you give us a rough idea how much the designers have charged you so far? I always find that really interesting and would love to know for when I do it myself.

I agree! it’s super interesting. Again, just my opinion here… You certainly can have subjectively different ideas on style, taste and aesthetics, that’s where design crosses into art to form ‘architecture’. Some people think wind farms are aesthetically pleasing and some do not, but they are objectively ‘good design’ either way - their job isn’t to look pretty. The carbuncle though, it’s aesthetically poor in my opinion; but some might not agree. I don’t know exactly what the brief was, or why they designed it the way they did. A brief look seems to say it’s out of scale to the area and it separated the poor and the wealthy apartments in a really sinister way. But, it got planning and built right? Some things seemed to qualify as ‘adequate’ design at least. As a public building, is part of the design criteria to be ‘pleasing to the masses’? Because look at the Pompidou Centre or others. Generally I think, if you follow the basic principles of good design you will get something aesthetically pleasing to most. But yes you can judge the aesthetics in different ways, that’s why sometimes I’ve built houses that were “beautiful in different ways”(ie = ugly), but I don’t think that makes it bad design.

I’d agree there. Looks lovely but have you found a builder who can create a barrel roof? Have you seen how much chimneys cost? Is a ‘non-rightangled’ room the best thing for a utility or whatever that room is. How are you going to fit the units. My main concern is… is a big open plan house the best thing for someone with autistic needs? You will know better than me of course, and how noisy your family is.

Editing to add, because I don’t think I articulated that very well; Art is subjective, design is not. Many non-designers confuse the two. Art is ruthlessly subjective, art simply ‘is’. You can like or dislike it, you don’t have to justify why, ‘It looks nice’ is fine. You can go into it as a critic or talk about the ‘rules’ if you want, but they don’t exist, you can go from your gut. Design is about successfully communicating functional ideas into concrete forms, to the intended audience. Function, need, reasoning and justification. These are objective things. It’s not about the designer’s ideology or emotion. The user has a ‘need’ for the design, there’s objectives and a brief, other stakeholders (planners, budgeting, construction). When you design something, you are asking yourself questions; ’what is informing this design decision’ and ‘how can I validate this design choice’. So technically you can have an objectively ugly outcome, but as long as it fulfils the design requirements, its functional, it’s adequate design. As an example, if you ask a designer to make the windows bigger (as happened here), a good designer would say “why”. The windows they drew to start with were (presumably) that size as they fit the room and the lighting requirements, were the right cil height to satisfy building regs, and the right proportion for the front elevation. The client has to assume the designer has thought of this and approach with the blindfold half on. But also in this case I feel like the designer hadn’t thought that much about the windows in the first place, then they blindly obeyed. This is the blind leading the blind. And this is what you get. I think a smart person wouldn’t employ a hack. They would accept their limits and find someone who could make smart design choices. Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I hope it’s relevant and feel free to disagree!