No, I’m a Building Designer. I completed an Advanced Diploma of Building Design and worked for over a decade in architectural practices but am not registered as an Architect.

There are many crossovers between the services of Architects and Building Designers and indeed the vast majority of new homes and small-medium scale (townhouses etc) developments built in Australia every year are designed by non-Architects. There is great variation between skills, focus, experience and approach between Building Designers as there is within any profession, including between Architects and we encourage thorough research before settling on an Architect or Building Designer for your project. We offer free, no obligation initial design meeting and chat to assist you in this search as well as fixed price and seperable early planning and concept design reports if only to explore your options early on. As a business ENV Design focus’s on providing high quality, well balanced and considered custom environmental design outcomes (up to 2 Storeys).

There are many variables here but to cut to it for a fully custom house design expect 6-12 months of design discussion, documentation and approvals (depending upon the level of quality and outcome you wish to achieve), without apology, design is a creative process and thinking, reassessing, improving, developing and documenting in detail all take time. Having said that ENV Design is a business based around the ideal of delivering the highest quality outcome in the most efficient ways, through the use of systems and process.

Summary of average time frames to expect:

• Garage (and associated landscape and building works): 3-8 months from initial consultation to builder ready.

• Secondary Dwelling: 4-10 months from initial consultation to builder ready.

• New House: 7-15 months from initial consultation to builder ready.

From experience the best outcomes are achieved by adhering to a process. All projects we take on, whether part-way or to completion, follow a similar process. Take a look at the ‘Typical Project Program’ diagram at the bottom of this page to see this typical process.

There is a big range of services we can provide depending on the specific needs of your project. Maybe youre just after ‘ideas’ Spatial planning, concept design, or need help with Approval Management, Consultant design coordination… or ‘ Full Services’ including Detailed documentation, joinery design, project specification’s, tendering, contract preparation and construction stage services) . We’re happy to chat and work assist in various ways to work with your specific project needs and budget. Depending upon the particular needs of your project the our fee might work out to be between 3-12% of the total build cost of your project. Before getting to the stage of Fee Proposals and Agreements e offer a range of fixed price services to allow you the flexibility to ‘gather ideas’ and consider your options thoroughly before committing to further work. We would encourage you to seek a range of ideas and input into your project and thoroughly consider your options in the early stages before committing to any one Architect or Building Designer and design direction…it’s just good process.

No. I get asked a lot about Passive House design however please be aware that, at least as yet, I am not a trained or accredited Passive House Designer. I have a strong appreciation and awareness for the principles of Passive House however passive house is a detailed and complex science and I have not (at least as yet) undertaken a Passive House Training course.

On previous projects I have worked with Passive House consultants, at different stages of the design process toward successful design outcomes.

While we always design with a consideration for the efficiency of size, space and materials and scope and will do our best to help you in managing your expectations however be aware that we do not, at any stage, provide cost estimations, this is outside the scope of our services and experience.

We highly recommend and encourage the early involvement and engagement of Builders and Quantity Surveyors.

This Concept design report is a preliminary effort to try to capture and describe the project in a broad and wholistic way and is therefore a great time to begin discussions with builders and quantity surveyors regarding getting a 'feel’ for the cost of your project.

We particularly highly recommend seeking cost estimates during the PSP and FSP stage drawings sets as it is at these stages that drawings develop, with dimensions and materials and many of the details that make a ‘take-off’/measurement of areas and materials more accurate and leaves us time to adjust before moving into approvals and detailed documentation.

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