New Build Room Requirements Capture Checklist

For each room, write down who uses it, at which part of the day, and whether more than one activity has to happen there at the same time.

Rooms serving two activities at once are where briefs quietly fail, and naming the overlap early is what allows a designer to resolve it.

Note the rooms in your current home that go quietly unused, and try to say why rather than simply repeating the same arrangement.

Repeating an unused room in a new building is common, and the reason it went unused is usually a solvable adjacency or daylight problem.

Record the largest number of people who realistically need to be in each main room together, and separately the number that is there on an ordinary day.

Rooms get sized either for an imagined gathering that never happens or for a daily reality that then feels tight, so stating both helps.

Write down which rooms have to work while the rest of the household is asleep, and who is using them.

Night-time use drives lighting, sound separation and route decisions that are difficult to introduce once a plan has settled.

Note any room whose use is expected to change, such as a study that may become a bedroom or a playroom that becomes something else.

Flexibility has to be designed in rather than added later, and it is only designed in if the requirement is written down at this stage.

For each room, say in one sentence what would make it a failure, rather than only describing what would make it good.

A stated failure condition can be tested against a drawing, whereas an aspiration usually cannot be tested against anything.

Measure the largest items you already own and write those measurements into your own notes, rather than relying on an impression of their size.

Existing furniture is the constraint owners most often forget to state, and it is far easier to plan around a measured item than a remembered one.

List anything that has to be brought into the finished building and could not be taken apart, such as an instrument or a large fixed appliance.

Getting large objects in is decided by doors, stairs and turns, and the question is far easier to answer while the plan is still on paper.

Note the equipment each room has to accommodate that is not furniture, such as exercise equipment, instruments, tools or medical items.

Equipment carries space, power and sometimes ventilation requirements that are rarely mentioned until a room is being fitted out.

For kitchens and utility spaces, write down which appliances you expect to have rather than assuming a standard set will be allowed for.

Appliance intentions drive services and space, and assumptions about them are among the most common late changes on a project.

Ask what clearances, ventilation and connections any appliance you intend to use requires, and confirm this with the manufacturer and the installer.

Note where you expect to put the things that have no designated place, such as sports kit, recycling, deliveries and drying laundry.

Unassigned everyday items end up in circulation space, which is how a well-planned house gradually becomes a cluttered one.

Record anything that must sit against a wall or in a corner and cannot be shifted once it is in position.

Immovable items constrain where doors, heating and outlets can go, and stating them prevents a conflict being discovered on site.

Note the direction each part of the plot faces, using a compass reading you take yourself rather than a general impression.

Orientation is simple for an owner to establish and quietly determines which rooms will be pleasant at the parts of the day you use them.

Write down when you actually want daylight in each room, such as morning light where you eat breakfast or softer light where you work.

Stating when light matters is far more useful than asking for a bright room, because it can be planned for rather than hoped for.

Record anything that overshadows the site, such as a neighbouring building, a large tree or a slope, and note where it sits relative to the plot.

Overshadowing is visible to you across the seasons in a way it can never be to a professional visiting the site once.

Note what you want to see from each room and what you would rather not see from it.

Outlook drives room position more strongly than most owners state, and unwanted views matter just as much as good ones.

Ask how the glazing under discussion would affect comfort in warm weather as well as light in winter, and record the answer given.

Large areas of glass change how a room behaves in warm weather, which is a technical question rather than a matter of taste.

How glazing affects overheating, ventilation and energy performance is for qualified professionals to assess for your design and your location.

Note any room where you would accept borrowed or indirect light rather than a window, such as a utility area or a dressing space.

Saying where daylight is not required gives a designer room to put windows where they will do the most good.

Go through what you currently store and note honestly what you would not be taking with you.

Storage briefs are usually written on the assumption that possessions will be reduced, which is rarely what actually happens.

Record where bulky seasonal items would live, including luggage, decorations and anything used only occasionally.

Seasonal items are the storage most often forgotten, and they end up in a loft or garage whether or not one exists in the design.

Note whether you want storage in the room it serves or gathered in one place, and say why you lean that way.

This choice affects wall space and door positions in every room, so it belongs in the brief rather than being settled during fit-out.

Write down what needs to be stored near the entrance, such as outdoor clothing, footwear, sports kit, pushchairs and deliveries.

Entrance storage is the single most underestimated requirement and it directly affects how the front of a building works day to day.

Note anything stored that has particular requirements, such as items that must stay dry, cool, ventilated or secure.

Special storage requirements can affect construction and services, so they need stating rather than assuming a cupboard will do.

Write down which rooms must not be heard from which other rooms, naming the pair rather than asking generally for a quiet house.

Sound separation is planned between named spaces, and a general request for quiet gives a designer nothing to work against.

Note where noise comes from outside, such as a road, a railway, a school or a neighbouring workshop, and at which parts of the day.

External noise patterns are known to you and unknown to a designer, and they influence which rooms should face in which direction.

Record whether anyone works, studies, practises an instrument or sleeps at unusual hours.

Unusual patterns of use drive both room position and separation, and they are often left out of a brief as too personal to mention.

Ask what can realistically be achieved in sound separation between rooms and what depends on the construction decisions still to be made.

Expectations about sound are usually formed in other buildings, and the honest answer depends on the construction being proposed here.

How much sound separation any construction achieves is a technical matter for qualified professionals to assess for the design in question.

Note where privacy matters between your rooms and the outside, including overlooked windows and doors that open into view.

Privacy problems are usually created by window position rather than by glass, and they are hard to fix once an opening is formed.

Write down which rooms need to be next to which, and which pairs you would prefer to keep well apart.

Adjacency preferences are the most useful thing an owner can supply, because they constrain the plan without dictating a solution.

Walk through each room in your mind and note where you would be standing while holding something that needs a socket.

Outlet positions are almost always decided too late and by someone who does not use the room, so an owner-side note is genuinely valuable.

Record where you want light and what task happens there, rather than asking for a particular number of fittings.

Describing the task lets a designer resolve lighting properly, whereas a fitting count locks an arrangement in before the room is understood.

Note the rooms where water is wanted, including places beyond the obvious ones such as a utility area, an outside tap or a garden room.

Additional water points are far simpler to plan while the layout is being drawn than to introduce once the building exists.

Write down where heat is most and least wanted, including the rooms you would prefer to keep cool.

Heating preferences vary between household members and between rooms, and stating them prevents a uniform assumption being applied everywhere.

Note where extract ventilation will be needed, and ask how each of those routes would reach the outside air.

Ventilation routes influence both layout and elevation, and they are one of the most common late compromises in a plan.

Ventilation requirements for kitchens, bathrooms and any fuel-burning appliance must be confirmed with qualified professionals against the local requirements.

Mark on your notes the wall and roughly the height where each fixed connection would have to land, including anything mounted rather than plugged in.

A requirement with no position attached to it cannot be drawn, and a connection agreed in principle but never located is the one that ends up on the wrong wall.

Note which way each door should swing and what it would block while it is standing open.

Door swing decides where furniture and switches can go, and it is easy to settle on paper and awkward to change once frames are set.

Write down the routes that will be used most often, such as car to kitchen or bedroom to bathroom at night, and check each one is direct.

Daily routes reveal the plan problems that a drawing hides, and they are described most accurately by the person who will be walking them.

Record whether anyone using the building has mobility needs now or is likely to, and note this as a question for the design team.

Raising this early changes what can be considered, whereas raising it later usually means working around decisions already taken.

Any requirement relating to access or mobility must be assessed by qualified professionals against the requirements that apply where your project is.

Note where wet or dirty things get put down on the way in, and whether that route passes through a room you want to keep clean.

The dirty route through a house is rarely drawn and always used, and planning it prevents a permanent low-level annoyance.

Write down whether any part of the building should be usable separately, such as by a visitor or by someone working from home.

Separable use affects entrances, services and sound separation, and it is very hard to retrofit into a finished layout.

Ask how large items would be carried in during construction and afterwards, including up any stairs and around every turn.

The route in constrains stair design and door widths, and it is much easier to check while the plan is still being drawn.