Initial Options

When we start to design we try not to come at it with a single pre-conceived idea of what is best for you or your place. After asking a lot of questions of you, and a good amount of research into your site, we sit down to test some ideas.  That comes back to you as an initial series of options, none of which are meant to be the final design, but instead are meant to facilitate the start of a conversation.   

The purpose of this exercise is to test out what works and what doesn’t on this site.  To have something for you, the client, to react to so we can understand what you do and do not like.  They are simply labeled 1, 2 & 3 for neutrality, bit that is not an order or a rank choice. 

Initial Option 1 for a current in-progress ADU project in Lafayette, CA.

We intentionally make them different in a variety of ways (entry path, location on site, arrangement of rooms, roof shape, exterior materials, etc.) and many of those approaches are interchangeable between options.  All of them attempt to solve most of your requirements, but some things get dropped in certain options to start talking about tradeoffs.  If you like the roof form in one option but the layout of another for example, they can probably be recombined. 

Initial Option 2 for a current in-progress ADU project in Lafayette, CA.

These are 3 options from a current ADU project on the boards.  They fostered a great discussion and the project is moving forward with enthusiasm.  Want to start your own conversation about your place in the world?

We do these options early in a design and push each of them far enough to be feasible projects which could stand on their own.  That is a lot of work early in the process, but it is there to make sure we get all the false starts out of the system early.  A frank, honest conversation about the options generates a lot of lessons so when we move forward with one of them, or more often some parts of some of them, we can all be confident we are on the right track.

Initial Option 3 for a current in-progress ADU project in Lafayette, CA.

“It takes awhile, maybe years, to fully realize that design does not proceed in a neat linear path from idea to resolution.  In truth, it is a much messier democratic operation wherein every part must be considered from the start and constantly consulted throughout the process.  So, as frustrating and expensive as it is to rethink a design, few things are as exhilarating as beginning over with the hard-earned sense of the right direction.  Design, after all, is not about determination alone, it is about evolution.  As valuable as instinct is, determination usually happens in the early, uniformed hours of design.  It is often based on past thoughts and successes, and is, therefore, limited.  The evolution of these early thoughts, intentions, through many trials is where the real design is. When the shy idea, like a sand crab, can be coaxed and dislodged from its safe hole.”

- W. G. Clark, “Afterthoughts”