What to Bring to Your First Architect Meeting

Most people walk into a first architect meeting with a Pinterest board and a number. Both help. But what an architect really needs to hear is how you live, what matters most, and what you'd give up to get it.

You can save a lot of time, and some design fees, by writing that down before the meeting. A few pages is plenty. Call it a design brief. Here's what's worth putting in it.

Who the house is for

Who lives there full time, who visits, and how often. Kids and their ages, aging parents, regular guests, pets. Is it a full-time home, a second home, or one that will become full time later? A house for two that hosts twelve at the holidays is a different house from one that hosts nobody.

How you actually live

Walk through a normal day and a weekend. Where you have coffee, where you work, where the kids do homework, where gear goes when you come in from skiing. Who cooks, and whether you cook together. Where you want quiet. Where the dog sleeps.

This is the part people skip, and it's the part that shapes the plan most.

Rooms, ranked

List every room or space you're thinking about and put each one in a column:

• Must have: the house doesn't work without it.
• Want: important, but you'd give it up before going over budget.
• If it fits: nice, not necessary.
• No: things you've decided against, so nobody draws them.

The ranking matters more than the list. It's what lets the architect make trade-offs you'd agree with when the budget gets tight.

The site

What you love about the lot and what worries you. Views, sun, wind, snow, slope, neighbors, the approach from the road. Bring the survey if you have one, and any HOA design guidelines. See HOA and design review and Before you buy the lot.

Look and feel

Photos help, but notes on the photos help more. For each one, write what you like about it: the light, the materials, the ceiling, a detail. "We like the warm wood and the big window, not the cabinets" tells an architect much more than the picture alone.

Include a few things you don't like, too.

Comfort and systems

Radiant floors, air conditioning, a fireplace, a steam shower, a tight and efficient house, a home office with good internet, an EV charger. These change the design and the budget, so they belong on the list early. See Built to code vs. above code.

Budget and timing, with trade-offs ranked

Give a construction budget, not just a total, and say what else is coming out of the same money. See The all-in budget.

Then rank what you'd protect if something had to give: size, finish level, schedule, or budget. Two people with the same budget can rank these completely differently, and the architect needs to know which you are.

Add your timing: when you hope to start building and when you'd like to move in.

How you'll make decisions together

Who has the final word on what, how quickly you can turn around decisions, and how you like to communicate. If you're building as a couple, it helps to fill out the brief separately first and then compare. See When you and your partner want different houses.

Questions worth asking at the meeting

• What would you change about how we've ranked the rooms, given the budget?
• Which items on our list are most likely to push the cost up?
• How will you estimate cost as the design develops, and when?
• What does your design phase cover, and what's extra?
• How involved will you be during construction?