Architects have over the past several decades developed a pretty well-defined process for design that is grouped into seven basic phases described below. This design process is closely mirrored in contracts and the documentation of the design as it moves from an early, low-resolution and low-fidelity design to a highly resolved and fully detailed digital model with paper documentation. This process serves as a guide as the project progresses from concept to construction. As a BIM-centred firm, we do more of the work at the front-end of a project, leveraging the advantages of the integrated design process (IDP), where we collaborate early on with structural and mechanical engineers to arrive at a higher performance level that can result in accelerating the completion of Permit and Construction Documents. Below is a description of what we do in each phase of the design.

0. Introduction

We have retained these conventional phase names for the sake of consistency with the profession and for clarity because that is how our industry standard contracts and proper invoicing are recognized. That said, the BIM software we use (ArchiCad) helps us deliver results in a fraction of the time that it would take with a conventional, 2D (aka. CAD) process. In a way, we start from the end (details) and work our way to the start (concepts) as much as we work from the start towards the end. This advanced, immersive modelling tool allows for fully integrated 3D site modelling and laser-accurate base building input for renovations, incorporating workflows, details and processes we continue to refine on every project. This also means that more of our fees are generated in early phases where owners may not see the full extent of the work we are generating, even though this ‘upside-down’ process means lower total fees when compared to traditional ‘unidirectional’ workflows. The single, unified BIM model provides you with photorealistic interior and exterior visualizations at the same time as creating detailed project documents for your building and construction permits, saving design time and fees, while giving you a good sense of what the project will actually look like even in the early stages of Schematic Design. Together we can make extensive changes and refinements on the fly, resulting in better design, fewer iterations, and a product that is tailored to your needs, and far easier to read and execute in construction. Your builder will thank you!

1. Pre-Design

We start all of our initial meetings with a few simple questions, what are you wanting to do, for how much, and when? This may include bedroom counts, garage or carport, septic and well or city services, building form, stories, performance level, construction technology and a host of other questions. If you’re interested in submitting this information to us, please complete our Intake Form. Often owners will come to us with stock plans they would like to modify or change – that’s perfectly fine by us. We also have access to have hundreds of stock plans of completed projects we can review with you and an entire archive of CMHC award-winning projects from 1947 right through to the 1970’s that we can curate to your needs and budget, saving you time and fees in the schematic design phase. (we have a licensing agreement for that allows us to update these designs to current Ontario Building Code standards and above, from R2000 and even Passive House level performance) Budgeting is part of the pre-design phase, and so we point our clients to our proprietary web-based calculator to take the discussion further. This can help to establish a realistic budget for construction, fees, build quality and overall performance goals. This tends to be a difficult subject to start discussions with because of the simple fact that we often want a level of quality, size and performance that we may be unprepared to pay for. Construction costs escalate steadily year over year to the point where many of our clients routinely question the facts of our own current experience.

• Fact #1: As of March 2021, $400 is a decent starting budget for new single-family residential construction, to produce contemporary, traditional or transitional style homes using conventional construction.
• Fact #2: Based on 20 years of experience in prefabricated construction, we have found ways to bring costs down to as low as $200/sf while doubling energy performance – however these high-performance buildings may have a rather unconventional appearance.

We prefer to tell our clients the full truth of current construction costs, rather than dealing in half-truths. After all, you probably do not intend to build only half of a building. Where other designers or builders may downplay costs until after they have your business, the problem that results is that you may have little choice but to continue working with these parties even when a project goes off the rails, leaving owners facing an uncomfortable exit or even potential legal wrangling. By dealing with costs and expectations early on, we’re looking out for your best interest from day one – and that means always telling you the full story. We based our web-app on the most current available facts of construction costs and performance metrics, but don’t take our word for it; you can review Rider Levitt Bucknall’s Quarterly Costing report for North America for yourself. Note that costs of construction in the GTA for Q2 of 2020 have escalated nearly from 14 to 30% (depending on who you ask!), largely due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Update: Recently costs of lumber and other building materials have as much as tripled in some markets. When looking at the sales tax on a $1mln job, that’s $130k by itself. Or the last real estate commissions you may have paid at ~5% or $50,000.00. In comparison, when you look at the hours of the work we put in to your design, our fees pale in comparison to these kinds of percentages and what’s more, the material and cost savings we can help you realize with a few good decisions made early on, and finally the potential energy savings we can help you realize more than justifies our fees. Once your own cost and performance parameters are established, the rest of the design process can be fun, productive and most importantly proactive and not reactive. A construction budget, like an Olympic Record, should be a number to beat, but don’t expect to beat it without some serious training and experience! If there is anything that is missing in this phase, a site-plan, a property survey, a geotechnical report, we can help you to track down exactly what you will need to advance to the next step. This could mean helping you evaluate a few different buildings or properties or by providing laser measured drawings of your base-building. We will also develop your project’s program – the sequence of spaces and relationships – together with the project budget, and all of the preferences that impact the look, durability and overall quality of the design. Finally we will map out the project delivery (the type of construction contract) and the architect’s role in administering the construction process, an optional service that our past clients will highly recommend. If this is all you are interested in exploring at first, we do a $799 flat rate site study with zoning review, which will determine the facts, but also the ‘known unknowns’ – such as whether a CofA application or Site Plan Application may be required.

A peek at our construction cost calculator app below. You are in complete control of the size, build quality and performance levels, and this app will help establish the project goals before we even start the design process – try it out!

2. Basic (Schematic) Design

Now that we have clarified budgets and goals and the scope of our services with a contract, the fun part of design can begin. We’ll organize all of your needs, goals, wishes and likes, reviewing preferred materials, photos of spaces and places that have impressed you (link to our pin boards), as well as gather all of the technical documents that describe your property like soil types, zoning, and other information that will influence the project.

The progression from Schematic Design Sketches to Design Development Drawings, sufficient for most permit applications.

We then take all of the essential design elements we’ve identified together, and create sketches and space plans or, on larger projects, bubble diagrams that will help you see these elements organized into a kind of nascent architectural form within the constraints of your site, zoning, budget and other defining elements. Just as there is a smart way to pack a bag of groceries, or load a suitcase, or even to compress data, there is a smart way to organize architectural space, which helps improve usability and actually lower overall construction cost and consolidate space requirements. We then refine the unique elements of your architectural program (i.e. building massing, rooms and areas) into a BIM model while finding ways to optimize your building on its site taking advantage of natural assets such as the sun, prevailing winds, orientation, views and topography. As soon as the model is in BIM, we can start to run energy evaluations to optimize building performance to try to meet the level that we established in our very first Pre-Design meeting.

Now we have arrived at something that really looks like a building and for some projects smaller projects such as renovations, small homes, utility buildings, generic tenant improvements and simple cottages, this may be all that is required for advancing to a construction permit application.

3. Premium Design Packages (aka. Design Development)

For premium residential, heritage or commercial projects, we recommend the Silver, Gold, or Platinum Packages, otherwise known as the Design Development Phase, where we will continue to refine the design, and explore additional materials, assemblies, and details of the interiors and exteriors that will result in a more tightly integrated project where all elements of the design are in harmony with one another. Silver, Gold and Platinum levels of design is for projects that seek to go beyond the ‘builder special’ set of materials, assemblies and details found at the local lumber yard and specified on conventional tract homes. This results in a more substantial set of construction documents, including schedules for every aspect of the design, from stairs, to doors and windows, casework and trim, finishes and fixtures, electrical fixture locations and 3D schematics, detailed ceiling design (Reflected Ceiling plans), interior elevations and millwork elevations. These comprehensive plans and 3D drawings will not only make pricing and construction of the project much easier for the General Contractor, but they will also allow the owner to visualize their project, and to hold trades and sub-trades to account for the details shown. Several rounds of design exploration are typical to this level of design, and so multiple and updated floor plans, sections, elevations will result, until we have met your complete satisfaction. Your spaces now form distinctive rooms, adjacencies and smart circulation with unique expressions of materials, light and views that result in an architecture that is often referred to as ‘form follows function’.  What is unique to our practice is an approach whereby redundant spaces are distilled or condensed, circulation spaces are shared with and through rooms. Rooms can take on multiple functions, such as where a bedroom can become an upstairs library and lounge with the use of clever, built-in ‘swiss-army-knife’ furniture solutions. This can reduce excessive square footage and redundant cost while increasing functional space (ie. fewer hallways, more liveable and open rooms).  We’ll explore this developing architecture in the computer, and as your 3D Model develops further, detailed plans, sections and elevations flow from the creation of your 3D digital model. We will explore every opportunity to align and rationalize interiors and exteriors, eliminating construction waste and simplifying construction, as well as directing and coordinating all of the mechanical, electrical and other service requirements to create an expansive architecture that brings the outside in and vice versa. An efficient layout creates a greater feeling of spaciousness, while a rationalized structure and geometry reduces gross building costs and improves thermal and construction efficiency. This is how we aim to beat those ‘Olympic Records’ we established at the outset!

4. The Construction Document Phase

The goal of this phase is to complete and fully coordinate your architectural design with the information provided by other consultants to the point where it can be completely documented, and handed over to the builder to realize. Traditionally, architects allotted a large percentage of their fee to this phase, but as we design in 3D in the computer (BIM = Building Integrated Modelling) from day one, our drawings are created at the same time as we design the building, allowing us more time to explore design options early on. Our generic notes become specific at this stage and keynotes and specifications, Interior Elevations, Electrical Plans, Wall Sections and Unique Details are created at this stage to support the full set of Construction Documents. Ultimately, this also lets us discover potential conflicts and problems long before they make it to construction, giving us more time to coordinate and improve upon the design before it moves to the Construction phase, rather than ‘putting out fires’ during the construction process. It’s always better to be ‘proactive’ than ‘reactive’ and this is the true power of designing in 3-Dimensions, since buildings are in fact three-dimensional!

5. Permits & Approvals

Here is where we can help shepherd your project through the applications required by municipalities and governing bodies for the construction of your project. Permit requirements seem to be increasing year over year and new forms, studies, and Site Plan considerations are being asked for in many of the larger municipalities. Constructing safe, sound, thermally efficient buildings that conform to all required regulations and bylaws is fundamental, but codes and bylaws are complex, evolving documents, open to varying interpretation with no one-size-fits-all solution. We will guide you through all of the options pertaining to how to best comply with the building code, zoning bylaws and any other special required permits, while achieving your project’s stated goals, and we will work with the municipality to resolve/any all issues and comments to the best of our abilities. As a firm with extensive energy modelling expertise, we can help you achieve SB10/SB12 compliance by following the prescribed or performance paths, and having updated the new barrier-free standards required for larger public projects, we can also guide your commercial project through the most current requirements of the latest Ontario Building Code. While the building permit is issued closer to the end of the design process, you can rest assured that we anticipate what will be required for this application from the first draft design. With each project, we complete a comprehensive building code review and summary OBC Matrix document, a kind of project summary in table format that will help building officials read all information that is pertinent to the application, complete with construction assemblies and construction notes that reference the OBC assemblies for Sound Transmission Class and Fire Ratings. We can also highlight best practices that go beyond minimum code requirements. We will develop professional relationships with building and planning officials on your behalf, and deal with any conflicts in code interpretation tactfully and with your financial interest in mind. On complex projects or as needed, we can also recommend the services of an seasoned building code consultant.

6. Tender or Bid Phase

This is the stage where we will determine the nature of your project delivery. Will you have multiple contractors bid on the job? Or will you select a favourite by an interview process? We will guide you through the pros and cons of each approach, and get you all of the documentation you and your contractor will need to deliver the project to completion, including Contract Administration (CA) services during the construction phase. During construction, we will review progress, stand ready to answer all questions, and provide additional information as required. At the completion of your project, the essential elements of your project’s process will be used to create a project book that you can keep for your records. Tendering a contract for construction to multiple parties is one way to arrive at a competitive price for a given project. When contractors are aware that others are bidding for the same work, whether in an open (public) or closed (invited) tender context, the owner can expect not only competitive bids, but a range of prices that will validate the architect’s own pricing estimates. This process can be daunting for an owner to undertake on their own, as the process must follow a prescribed path, there are legal obligations and responsibilities to consider when tendering, reviewing, and awarding a contract. The architect can issue the same tender documents to all bidding parties, establish the conditions for bids, respond to questions from bidders in a manner that is fair to all, and help the client to award the contract not solely on price, but on any criteria that have been identified from the outset. I can help explain a number of additional project delivery options, from design-build, to sole-source, depending on the priorities of your project, such as timing, budget, or quality desired. A simpler approach can be to work with a prequalified builder using an ‘open book’ approach to accounting, where all costs are transparent and available for the owner to see, discounts are passed on to the owner, and the Constructor applies an agreed-upon percentage for overhead and profit. We can also work together in an Integrated Delivery Process (IPD), sometimes confused with the Integrated Design Process. IPD was informally referred to as Design-Build and generally implies that the builder and designer work together in the client’s interest to reduce costs and meet project goals through collaboration. On complex projects, or as required, we can also recommend the services of a Quantity Surveyor that can assist to prepare construction cost estimates, or help to evaluate a contractor’s bid.

7. The Construction Phase

Construction Administration services are often not well understood (by less experienced owners) until construction is in full swing, so before ruling these services out as a perceived ‘extra cost’ – we are happy to explain how CA services can actually limit costs and conflict, and keep projects running smoothly. The architect, working always in your best interest, will negotiate through unforeseen circumstances encountered during the build, as well as to provide information as required by the builder, and to help to limit change orders and/or maximize credits as they may arise. If we can help you to achieve even a modest 0.5% savings in construction costs, whether by preventing cost escalations or extras, preventing unilateral substitutions, limiting change-orders or their value, or by providing credits, this can often cover the Architect’s Construction Administration component fee. Surely the value of pro-active planning and extensive contract documentation should not be underestimated. Whether you opt for CA services or not, The OBC requires General Review by the Architect and Consultants during construction. General Review aims to evaluate compliance with code requirements as well as the contractor’s execution of the building as designed. The OAA and Pro-Demnity, our governing body and insurer, recommends monthly visits during construction. Additional visits or services during this phase of the project will be charged at the lesser of our required hourly rate or a per diem rate per visit. We will always stand ready to respond to questions from your General Contractor, during pricing and construction at our proposed hourly rate.

8. Premium & Additional Services

Additional services such as Marketing Videos and Visualization, Interior Design, Millwork Design, Architectural Landscape Design (non-floral), Graphic, Signage, laser scanning, thermal scanning, spatial scanning or detailed code or energy analysis, Net-Zero or Passive House Certification services can be added as required. Administration and Disbursement charges are extra to these phases and vary with project complexity and duration.

9. Resources:

1. Thomson Architecture’s Firm Profile Document (2020)
2. Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) Guide to Hiring an Architect
3. The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s (RAIC) Guide to Architectural Fees
4. Standard Forms of Contract OAA 600 (21 Pages / Full Services) and OAA 800 (3 pages / Schematic)
5. Select Sample Sheets from a Schematic Package
6. Thomson Architecture’s Selected Portfolio
7. Thomson Architecture’s Client Pin Galleries
8. Thomson Architecture’s Google Project Albums
9. Thomson Architecture’s Prefab Album