Design Process

There are as many ways to start the design process as there are different homes.  Whether you begin by filling out our Design Questionnaire or following the process detailed below, trust that we can take you from where you are, to where you want to be.  Let the fun begin…

One way to begin, when you are thinking about designing your own timber frame home, is to start gathering inpirational images,  writing lists of wants and needs and reading publications that showcase designs you are interested in.

Bubble diagrams can also be a great place to start.  The free flowing, graphic nature of bubble diagrams really help you to start visualizing the relationship between spaces, traffic patterns etc.

Often the next step in the design process is the development of floor plans.  As we create the floor plans you can start to see what it would be like to live in your home:  how you would move between spaces; how the size of spaces relate to others etc.  Floor plans are also a great design exercise as they are easily changed to try out different configurations.

Once the floor plans have been settled upon (at least for the most part), we will create a full 3D model of your home using our specialized timber software, Cadwork©.  This virtual building of your home allows you to really see what you are going to live in… and possibly, to recognize what changes you would like to make before the actual building process starts.  Once your model is created, we can provide you with both an Adobe Acrobat 3D file for you to study at home, as well as a video tour of the exterior and interior of your proposed home.

As part of the modeling process we also create a 3D model of your proposed timber frame.  All of the relevant joinery and accurate timber sizing is built into this model.  This model not only allows you to see your entire frame, but also allows us to definitively tell you how much this frame and associated enclosure system will cost to manufacture and install.

After the model and frame have been finalized, we move to the engineering of your frame and the creation of construction and permit drawings.  Elevations are part of this process.

Take a look at what we have done and imagine what we can do for you.