Bring decisions, not references
Pinterest boards help, but they do not replace decisions. A designer needs to know what is fixed and what is flexible: budget ceiling, household size, must-have spaces, and the way guests actually arrive.
All decision guides
Resolves: Am I ready to brief a designer properly?
What to bring to your first meeting with an architect
The brief decides the design. Arrive with these answers and the first concept will be close — arrive without them and you will pay for revisions.
5 min read · Updated 2026-08
The non-negotiables
- Total buildable area or number of bedrooms — whichever is the hard limit.
- Budget range, including contingency, not a single target number.
- The one problem the house must solve (privacy, ageing in place, multi-generational living, entertaining, etc.).
- Any site constraint: orientation, slope, easements, services.
The questions that save the most time
If you can answer 'who decides, who pays, and who will live here in ten years' before the first meeting, the architect can design for the real project instead of a guessed one.
Next step
Home Identity turns your preferences into a clear design brief — so the first concept is already close.
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