Custom Home Design in Edmonton: Start With the Site

A brief that describes how you live

We would ask a household to describe an ordinary evening. Someone is cooking while another person finishes work. Children need somewhere to play, and a visitor arrives at the front door. The useful information is where those activities should meet and where they need separation. A list of rooms leaves much of that unresolved.

An open kitchen may make it easier to remain part of a conversation, but it also places cooking and clearing up within view. A partial enclosure could offer some separation while retaining a connection to the table. We would draw both possibilities and discuss what each changes. There is no reason to assume that the most open arrangement is the one the household will prefer.

Let the property influence the plan

For an Edmonton infill site, the street, lane and neighbouring houses are part of the design. A living room positioned for sunlight may also face a neighbour's main window. Moving the room, turning an opening or introducing a sheltered courtyard would produce different consequences for the rest of the house. Those alternatives are worth testing before the exterior becomes fixed.

Start with reliable property information. Edmonton's new-home guidance identifies development and building permits and directs applicants to check the property's zoning and overlays. Permissions for another house on the street do not establish the permissions for this one. [1] A current survey and title review belong alongside the design studies, with uncertainties identified for the appropriate professional to investigate.

Draw the route through the house

In a proposed plan, trace the route from the everyday entrance to the kitchen with groceries in hand. Then look at what happens to wet boots, coats and bags. If that route passes through the seating area, the living room has to accommodate both occupation and passage. A change at the entrance might free more useful space than enlarging the room.

We also want to know how the house will work when routines change. A ground-floor room might begin as a study and later need to accommodate sleeping. That possibility affects its privacy and relationship to a bathroom now. It should be discussed as a genuine requirement, rather than assumed to work because a bed fits on the drawing.

Check the view from a chair

A section lets us examine the window from the position of someone sitting down. It also shows the relationship between the room and the ground outside. A view that looks convincing from a standing eye level may be quite different from the sofa.

In the early studies, we would consider daylight, shading and furniture together. A larger opening can remove wall needed for storage or seating; a higher sill may give useful enclosure but interrupt an intended view. The decision needs to serve the room as well as the elevation. These are the points where architecture and interiors are already inseparable.

Agree what deserves the budget

Before developing the preferred scheme, identify what the household values enough to protect. It might be a sheltered connection to the garden or a quiet room that can close off from family life. We can then test whether simplifying the building elsewhere would preserve that priority.

The client should see the alternatives with an early budget range, its exclusions and the information still needed. We would rather revisit a plan at this stage than carry an attractive image forward with unresolved everyday problems. A custom home earns its particular form through those decisions.