Bringing your dream home to life requires careful planning and cost control.
Every design decision can affect how and where you spend your budget. At Facit Homes, we connect your design choices with realistic construction costs throughout, so you get a design that you love and a home you can afford to build.
Designing your home with architects
“Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.” - Charles Eames
Imitation is not innovation. Contemporary architects push the boundaries of what is creatively and physically possible, considering multiple influences and pioneering construction approaches to deliver sustainable architecture and a design solution.
Working with the right architect is important. Once you've discovered the architect or architectural practice that suits you, we have some top tips to remember.
Get a handle on costs during the design. If you can get cost input from a professional at the start of your project, you’ll give yourself the keys to success.
Keep your design realistic. While you will be led by the experts, try to avoid getting too carried away. Make it feasible and affordable! Cost is irrevocably linked to design, but it can still be a beautiful scheme whatever the budget.
Assess planning from the get go. Work with an experienced designer and possibly a planning consultant, and consider seeking planning pre application advice.
Last but not least - consider how you will build it at the start. The construction phase carries the biggest risk to the budget. The method of construction should be considered at every part of your process; design, costing and planning.
Cost control in design development
Designing your home with an architect is an exciting journey. While Facit Homes was created to design and build homes that deliver value for our customer with an end-to-end turnkey service, we have also more recently built designs by other architects.
For some of these projects we've made amendments to the design in order to reduce costs and guarantee that the home can be built on budget.
The size, style and complexity of a home are all adjustable in our 3D model. If a project needs to be amended to reduce build costs, we explore the options with our customers to find the best solution. Our assisted self finish service also offers the opportunity for customers to complete the interiors themselves to reduce costs.
Designing your home with Facit Homes
Intelligent design makes a difference. After all, design is “a way to understand the world and how you can change it”.
Understanding the experiences and aspirations of our customers helps us to guide the design development of their dream home. We've simplified our project process below to show where, when and how the design is created.
Step 1: Discovery
You’ve found Facit Homes, appreciate our designs and cost per m2, and reach out. During initial emails, calls and site visits, we explore as many details as possible so that we can get to know what you want to achieve and discover other little clues which help to mould the project.
You’ll have:
A site
A basic brief including rooms and overall scale
A desire to create a contemporary, sustainable home
At this stage, you’ll discover everything you need to know about Facit Homes and how we can create your dream home.
Step 2: Defining your project
It’s great if you come to us with a list of what you want from your new home, but we will also discuss the overall scope of the project with you and get an understanding of site and its requirements. At this stage we present you with an outline of the project details and initial cost estimates in a project proposal. You’ll then decide whether to appoint us to design your home.
Step 3: Design
Once appointed to design your home, there are three main steps we follow.
Preparation & Brief.
We develop the brief with you and get stuck into the early phase of design. Every conversation is a step in the right direction and discussions will centre on your aspirations, be shaped by a visit to your site and result in identifying any potential problem areas that could inflate costs.
Concept design.
The first stage zoning and massing are created with your input, as with every stage of the design. Initial outlines and concepts are based on the information provided before layouts are developed. The idea of how you want spaces to work should become clearer in your mind.
Developed design.
We develop a digital 3D model of your home so that we can interactively analyse the effect of any alterations to design and specification as we go.
Ideally you will love the design and be about 80% happy with the proposal at this point. We can always make some changes if not.
Sometimes the designs presented bring up a number of issues or just don’t feel quite right for you and so more radical changes are required, but we’ll always get there.
“The design process was very good. The 3D rendering meant that we spent a lot of time discussing the spaces and how they would fit our lifestyle, making decisions early on.”
Step 4: Cost plan and planning application
Decisions made and a design agreed, cost estimates become a cost plan and our work on the planning application can get underway. Delivering the cost plan before your planning application is submitted ensures you can afford to build your home once it is approved.
As we design the home with the budget in mind and discuss cost implications along the way, there shouldn’t be any major surprises but if there are, then amendments can still be made.
This is when we calculate an accurate estimate of your project.
NB: Delays.
If there is significant time between your initial estimate and cost plan, or cost plan and starting on site, there could be changes to the prices. All project costs are subject to inflation and material price rises, but we fix our prices once we sign the construction contract.
Step 5: Construction
Once your planning application has been approved, we prepare for the build of your home. Technical design can start (at risk) during the planning application if we’re confident of success.
After technical design is complete, we organise demolition (if necessary) and then the main event gets underway, starting with the groundworks. Our Mobile Production Facility is then transported to your site, and we manufacture your home from FSC plywood on site, assembling the components and building your high performance, low carbon Facit Chassis™ before adding windows, doors, cladding and then fitting out the interior ready for you to move in.
How much will it cost?
In a Facit Homes project, you'll discover how much your design will cost to build before your planning application is submitted.
Our construction costs are from £2,750 per m2 and we calculate architectural fees as a percentage of the total build cost. The fees vary from 12 – 17% depending on the project size and complexity and cover the full range of architectural design services.
More information on our turnkey service and fixed price construction contracts can be found on our price page: https://www.facit-homes.com/price
If you have a site and you’d like to design and build your home with us, contact the team in the studio on 020 3034 0720 or info@facit-homes.com.
