What is schematic design?
Schematic design is where the big idea is first drawn. Many of the decisions that shape the cost and quality of a building are made here.
What is schematic design in architecture?
Schematic design is the first stage of design, where the brief and the site become a plan. It sets the layout, the size and shape of the building and how it sits on the site, in simple drawings made before the detail is resolved. On an SDA project it is set against the SDA Design Standard from the start.
Schematic design is the first design stage on a building project. It takes the brief, the site and the rules that apply, and turns them into a first plan showing where the building sits, how big it is, how the rooms are arranged and how people move through it.
The drawings are simple at this stage. They show plans, a site layout and rough sections and elevations, which is enough to test the idea before time is spent on detail.
Where it sits in our programme
Our design runs in eight stages, set out in the eight design stages explained. Schematic design is the first, and it follows project establishment and feasibility, once the brief is agreed and the site has been tested.
We describe it as the first architectural intent, set against the brief, the site and the SDA Design Standard where it applies.
The big idea
Every project we design opens with one question: what is the big idea? Schematic design is where that idea is first drawn.
Once set, it is never broken, even if the consequence is starting again. Every later design move is judged against it, so it pays to get it right while the drawings are still simple.
What the stage decides
A schematic plan makes the decisions that are most difficult to change later. The position of the building on the site, the floor level against the ground, the arrangement of bedrooms and shared rooms, the outdoor space each room opens onto and where a car pulls up are all settled here.
On special-use accommodation, accessibility is part of this stage from the first sketch. Circulation space, a level path between parking and the front door, and bathrooms with room for assisted use all need floor area, and that area is found in the schematic plan or not at all.
Why it matters more in modular
In Hybrid Volumetric Modular, the plan is drawn with the module in mind. Where the joints between modules fall, which spaces are made in the factory and which are built on site, and how the dwelling divides into volumes that can travel by road all start to take shape here. The last of those is covered in how many modules make a dwelling.
Getting those choices right early is what lets the factory and the site run in parallel later.
The check that follows
The schematic is not left to stand on its own. The next stage, design assessment, measures it against compliance and accessibility before it is developed any further. That assessment sits inside the business, as set out in what an access consultant does.
What a client sees
At the end of schematic design a client has a plan they can read and respond to. It is the least costly point in the project to change direction, because a change costs a few drawings rather than a redesign.
That makes this the stage for a client to engage with most closely. A question raised now is answered on paper, while the same question raised during documentation can hold up the stage that follows.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.