sketch design
In this exercise, a previous client is building a barn with a local architect but wanted our opinion on future-proofing the layout for a possible home-conversion. They felt their local architect was too much of a "yes-man" and wasn't testing the barn enough. This was an client from many years ago so I wanted to help them out and do a free sketch for them and maintain a good client relationship.
The first decision here was that it was free. This meant no more than say 20mins should be spent on it before it would feel like I'm working for nothing. 20mins for an old client, I think, is fine but if they were to ask for more, I'd make a fee proposal.
The next post will go into the internal layout but here you can see the barn and the context. The barn is the grey rectangle in the centre of the plan. The main house is to the right of this.
decisions
First floor:
With a pitched roof, you always seek to maximise head-height by rising up the stair following the slope of the roof, trying to get the 2m head room required by regs. This could happen anywhere along the length of the plan, but the local architect had a central dormer and round window proposed so aligning to this gave an opportunity for a nice view and double-height space below. Additionally, if I were to place this stair to either side of centre, it could result in more corridor space rather than living space. Wardrobes are placed at the eaves which although ok at 1.7m high at the lowest point, mean that once you put in a wardrobe of standard depth (600mm) the standing height at the front of a wardrobe would be in excess of 1.8m.
This concluded a quick 15/20min exercise and hopefully you can see how a simple layout can be justified. It is these justifications that we present to the client - a mixture of practical and emotive moves. A balance between the two is important to sell your idea: it can't all be artistic license because that is so subjective. Providing practical reasons makes your proposal stronger.