Architect First-Meeting Preparation Checklist

Look for any drawings of the property that already exist, including sale particulars, an agent floorplan or an old extension drawing, and mark which look out of date.

Even a drawing that is wrong tells an architect what has been altered before and where to look more closely when the building is measured properly.

Write down when the building was put up and when the main alterations happened as far as you know, and mark clearly which of those are guesses.

Separating what you know from what you were told stops an early conversation resting on a date nobody has ever checked.

Note whether the property has ever been measured properly, who holds that information, and whether anything has changed since it was produced.

Design work usually starts from measured information, and knowing whether it already exists changes what the first stage of an appointment involves.

Ask a qualified professional what standard of survey information their work needs, rather than assuming an old drawing set will serve.

Gather the title documents for the property and mark the clauses you do not understand, rather than trying to work out what they mean yourself.

Restrictions written into title paperwork often shape what can sensibly be proposed, and flagging them early avoids designing around nothing.

What a title clause means for your plans is a question for your own legal adviser, not for a design meeting.

Photograph each room from the doorway and each external face of the building, then keep the images in one folder you can send in advance.

Photographs answer a great many small questions without a site visit and let the architect prepare rather than spend the meeting orienting themselves.

Note where you understand the boundary to run and whether any structure sits on or close to it, while treating your own view as unconfirmed.

Where the plot ends often decides what is worth exploring, and an early flag lets the right person establish it properly.

Where a boundary actually runs is not settled by what stands on the ground — put that question to your own legal adviser.

Write down how each main room is used from first thing to last thing, including the rooms that sit empty for most of that time.

Unused space is frequently where the answer sits, and it only surfaces when the account is honest about what is not happening.

Describe what currently goes wrong in the house — where people queue, where noise carries, which room is cold, where there is nowhere to put anything down.

Problems stated as observations give a designer something to solve, whereas a list of wanted rooms only gives them something to draw.

Separate the things that genuinely have to change from the things you would simply enjoy changing, and mark which is which before you meet anyone.

When scope has to narrow later, this line is the one thing that keeps the decision with you rather than with whatever is easiest to drop.

Note who lives in the property now and who may need to be accommodated later, including anyone who finds stairs or standing difficult.

Whether a household expects to change shape is one of the few pieces of information that alters a plan fundamentally rather than cosmetically.

Requirements for people with reduced mobility vary considerably and should be discussed with a qualified professional who can consider your particular situation.

Collect the images you have saved and write beside each one the single reason you kept it, rather than leaving the reason to be guessed at.

An unannotated folder of pictures is frequently read as a style instruction when what you actually liked was the light or the ceiling height.

List the furniture and equipment that must have a home in the finished house, and note the rough overall size of each awkward item yourself.

A piece that has to fit is a real constraint, and raising it now is far simpler than rearranging a layout once it is drawn.

Note which walls or structures are shared with a neighbouring property and record what you already know about the arrangement without drawing conclusions.

Shared structures change what an early proposal can assume, and the architect will want to know before sketching anything against that wall.

Work affecting a shared or party structure carries its own local requirements — confirm what applies with a qualified professional and your own legal adviser.

Walk the outside of the building noting drain covers, gullies and vent pipes, and mark roughly where they sit on a rough sketch of the plot.

Underground drainage often shapes where an extension can sit, and knowing where it runs early prevents a design being reworked from scratch.

Record which of your windows look directly at a neighbour's windows and which parts of the garden are overlooked, based only on what you can see.

Privacy is a common reason a proposal is reshaped, and an owner usually knows better than anyone who can see what from where.

Note the trees standing on and immediately beyond the plot, including any that look well established or that a neighbour may have an interest in.

Trees affect what can be built near them and how a foundation conversation goes, so they belong in the first discussion rather than the fourth.

Individual trees can be subject to local protection — confirm what applies to a specific tree with your local authority before any work is planned.

Write down where sunlight actually reaches the house and garden at different points, based on what you have watched rather than what you assume.

An owner who has lived through the seasons knows things about light that no site visit will reveal in a single afternoon.

Note how vehicles and materials would physically reach the rear of the property, including gate widths and whether the route crosses land you do not own.

Access shapes what is realistic to build and is frequently the constraint nobody mentions until a design has already been developed.

Any right to cross land you do not own is a legal question for your own adviser, not something to infer from long-standing habit.

Ask which stages of work the practice would expect to carry out on a project like yours, and at which point their involvement would normally end.

Owners rarely ask where an appointment finishes, and that omission is what leaves a project half drawn with nobody carrying it any further.

Ask who inside the practice would do the drawing work, and who you would be speaking to between meetings when a question comes up.

The person in the first meeting is not always the person doing the work, and knowing this early prevents an awkward discovery later.

Ask how design options are usually explored before a direction is settled, and what happens if none of the first ideas feel right to you.

Every practice has a different appetite for revisiting a direction, and it is far easier to ask about that before it is needed.

Ask what the practice needs from you at each stage and what most often stalls a project when an owner is slow to settle something.

Owners are part of the process, and knowing which decisions sit on the critical path helps you prepare for them rather than be caught by them.

Ask whether the practice would expect to visit while building work is under way, and what that attendance would and would not involve.

Site attendance means very different things in different appointments, and the difference matters greatly once work starts.

Attending site is not the same as checking workmanship or supervising a builder — ask precisely what is and is not covered.

Ask whether surveys, drainage checks and reports by other specialists are treated as part of the service or as separate appointments you arrange yourself.

This single question resolves a large share of the confusion owners experience about what they have actually engaged someone to do.

Ask who prepares and submits any applications for permissions or consents, and who deals with the questions that come back about them.

Preparing an application and responding to it afterwards are different tasks, and they are not always carried by the same party.

Which permissions apply to your property is confirmed with your local authority — never assume it from what a neighbour did.

Find out what would happen to the drawings if you decided to stop the project part way, and who would be able to use them afterwards.

Projects pause for all sorts of reasons, and the position on drawings produced so far is much easier to establish before the first one exists.

Ownership and reuse of drawings is a legal matter — put the question to your own legal adviser before you agree to anything.

Ask whether the practice would expect to be involved when a builder is chosen, and what that involvement would consist of in practice.

Some appointments include helping compare written offers on a like-for-like basis and some stop well before that point.

Ask what information you would be handed at the end of their involvement, and in what form you would receive it.

What you are left holding determines how easily another party can pick the project up if circumstances change.

Write the brief once and hand the same version to every practice you meet, instead of describing it slightly differently each time you tell it.

Differences between the answers only mean something when the question was identical, and spoken briefs drift more than anyone expects.

Record the date of each meeting and who was present, and keep the notes from each practice in a separate place rather than one running list.

Mixed notes blur quickly, and attributing a remark to the wrong practice is one of the more common ways a comparison goes wrong.

Note the questions you meant to ask and forgot in each meeting, then carry them into the next one so the set of questions grows rather than resets.

The strongest question list is usually the one assembled across several conversations rather than written before the first.

Write down what was said about stages, scope and responsibilities using the words that were actually used, and mark anything you were not sure about.

Paraphrasing turns a careful statement into a promise it never was, which is exactly the material you will be comparing later.

Note your own impression of how clearly each practice explained things, and keep it plainly separate from what was actually stated.

Impressions fade fast and are easily mistaken for facts, so keeping them apart on the page keeps the record honest.

Decide and record what you want settled before any further design work begins, even if that is only the shape of the brief itself.

A named threshold gives you something to judge against instead of being carried along by whatever is proposed next.

Agree in writing what each side will do next and who is picking up each item, then send that note rather than waiting to receive one.

A short written summary sent by the owner is often the only durable record of what an introductory meeting concluded.

Record which parts of your brief you are willing to reshape and which you are not, so later suggestions can be weighed against something stable.

Without this written down, a persuasive proposal tends to become the brief, and the original intent quietly disappears.

Note whether anyone else should join the next conversation, such as a partner, a co-owner or a relative who has not yet been involved.

Decisions made without everyone present are frequently reopened, which takes far more effort than including them from the start.

Where a property is jointly owned, decisions may need the agreement of every owner — check the position with your own legal adviser.

Write down anything in the meeting that surprised you, particularly assumptions you had been carrying that turned out not to hold.

Surprises in the first meeting are the easiest ones to absorb, and recording them prevents the same assumption creeping back later.