ArchBrief Project brief Project Brief Builder · USD 49
Rear extension, 41 Coledale Road: the brief for your architect
What you need, what you have said you want, and the gap between the two. Written to be handed over at the first meeting.
You have a clear idea of what you want and a budget that does not currently buy it. Better to know that in a brief than to find out in a design. The schedule below is what you described; clause 4 is what it costs at the rate your neighbours paid, and clause 5 is what to cut first.
What you have described is roughly 42 square metres of new and remodelled space. At the rate two comparable projects on your street settled at, that is around 155,000 GBP before fees, against a budget of 110,000. This is normal at brief stage and it is far cheaper to resolve now than after a design exists.
Objective
What the project is for
In your words, from the intake: "We want to stop eating in the hallway and we want somewhere the kids can be that isn't the sofa. And we're not moving, so it has to work for ten years, not two."
| Driver | Detail | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen and dining together | Currently separate, kitchen is 7 m² and galley | Must have |
| A second living space | For children, homework and noise separation | Must have |
| Utility out of the kitchen | Washing machine currently under the worktop | Strongly wanted |
| Downstairs WC | None at present | Strongly wanted |
| Better connection to the garden | Garden is used twice a year | Wanted |
| Home working space | One of you three days a week | Wanted |
| Fourth bedroom | Discussed and set aside for now | Not in this phase |
Schedule
Room and space schedule
| Space | Now | Wanted | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | 7 m², galley | Part of a 30 m² open space | Island wanted, needs 1 m clearance each side |
| Dining | None. Hallway table | Seats 6, 8 at a push | In the same space as the kitchen |
| Living, main | 16 m², keep | 16 m², unchanged | Not part of the works |
| Living, second | None | 12 m², separate door | The contested one, see clause 5 |
| Utility | None | 3.5 m² | Washer, dryer, sink, coats |
| WC | None | 1.8 m² | Must be off a lobby, not the kitchen |
| Study | Corner of a bedroom | Nook, not a room | Could sit in the second living space |
| Storage | Under stairs only | Bikes, buggy, garden | Consistently forgotten |
Total new and remodelled area is approximately 42 m². This is your requirement expressed as areas, not a design, and an architect may well meet it in less space than the sum of the parts.
Adjacency
What has to be next to what
- Kitchen and dining: one space, no door. This is the whole project and everything else gives way to it.
- Utility: directly off the kitchen, with a door that can be shut on the noise.
- WC: reachable from the hall without passing through the kitchen. This rules out several otherwise sensible layouts.
- Second living space: a door that closes, and not directly open to the kitchen. The point is noise separation.
- Garden access: from the dining end rather than the kitchen end.
- Storage: at the back door, where bikes and muddy things actually arrive.
Constraints
To be verified by a professional, not by us
| Constraint | What we found | Who confirms |
|---|---|---|
| Conservation area | Not in one, per the council map | Architect to confirm |
| Listed | No | Architect to confirm |
| Permitted development | Possibly, single storey rear | Architect or planning consultant |
| Article 4 direction | Unknown. Not shown on the public map | Council, in writing |
| Party wall | Both sides. Semi detached plus a boundary | Party wall surveyor |
| Drainage | A manhole in the proposed footprint | Architect and water authority |
| Trees | Neighbour's sycamore within 6 m | Architect, and a tree survey |
| Structural, removing the rear wall | Load bearing, assume a beam | Structural engineer |
| Gas meter position | On the rear wall | Architect, and the supplier |
None of this is a professional opinion. It is what a careful person can see from the deeds, the council's public map, a site visit and a drain cover, gathered so that your architect is not discovering it at their own hourly rate.
Budget
The gap, and what to cut first
| Element | Indicative | If cut | Effect on the brief |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core: kitchen, dining, structure | ~105,000 | Cannot cut | This is the project |
| Second living space, 12 m² | ~32,000 | Defer to phase 2 | Biggest single saving. Loses a must have |
| Utility | ~9,000 | Keep | Small money, high daily value |
| WC and lobby | ~7,000 | Keep | Hard to add later once walls are set |
| Rooflights, 3 | ~6,000 | Reduce to 1 | Cosmetic, easy saving |
| Bifold doors | ~8,000 | Sliding or French | Saves 3,000 to 5,000 |
| Underfloor heating | ~4,500 | Radiators | Saves most of it |
| Kitchen units and appliances | Excluded | n/a | Not in the 155k. Budget separately |
Indicative figures come from two comparable projects on your street completed in 2025 and 2026, supplied by you, adjusted for area. They are a sense of scale for the brief conversation. They are not a quote, an estimate or a cost plan, and nobody has priced your project.
Handover
Seven questions for the first meeting
- Given the manhole, is the footprint we have described achievable, and what does building over or near it add in time and cost?
- Is this permitted development or does it need a full application, and is there an Article 4 direction here?
- Can the WC be reached from the hall in a plan that also gives us the open kitchen and dining?
- What would you do differently if the second living space were deferred to a later phase?
- What is your fee, at what stages, and what is excluded?
- Do we need a structural engineer and a party wall surveyor, and do you appoint them or do we?
- What is a realistic programme from appointment to starting on site?
- Take this brief, the deeds and the two neighbour cost figures to the first meeting
- Ask three architects, and give all three the same brief
- Do not ask for sketches before appointing. A brief gets you a comparable fee quote; a sketch gets you attached
- Decide the phase 1 and phase 2 question before design starts, not during it