Synergy Building Design

Preparing for
your pre-design
meeting.

Before a single line is drawn, we need to understand your site, sharpen your brief, and make sure the design we develop is built on the right foundations. This guide will help you get ready.

Your first step

Let's make the most
of our first meeting.

Your pre-design stage is where everything begins. Before a single line is drawn, we need to understand your site, sharpen your brief, and make sure the design we develop is built on the right foundations.

The more you bring to the pre-design meeting, the further we go. A client who has spent time thinking about how they live, what they love, and what they want to walk away from will always get more out of this stage than one who hasn't.

This document is a short guide to help you prepare. Read it, think about it, and come in ready to talk.

The meetings

What happens
in pre-design.

Meeting 01
The site visit

We come to you. We walk the property together, assess what the site offers and what it demands, and begin to understand the context your home will sit within.

We look at orientation, levels, views, access, neighbouring properties, and anything else the site tells us. You do not need to prepare anything for the site visit. Just be there, walk with us, and tell us what you love and what frustrates you about the property as it stands.

Meeting 02
The scope meeting

We sit down together and work through your brief in detail. We ask questions, push on assumptions, and make sure what we are designing is genuinely what you need. Not just what you think you want right now.

This is the meeting this document is preparing you for. Come with your thinking done, your references ready, and the right people in the room.

Inspiration

Collect what you love
and what you don't.

You do not need a polished mood board or a perfectly curated folder. What we need is an honest picture of your taste. What excites you and what would make you walk away.

Before the scope meeting, spend some time collecting references. These might be photos from Instagram, Pinterest, or magazines. Homes you have visited or driven past and admired. Specific details that caught your attention. A window, a material, a way light moves through a space. Things from your current home you want to keep. Things you never want to see again.

Bring them however works for you. Screenshots on your phone, a saved folder, printed pages. The format does not matter. What matters is that they are honest.

Do not edit yourself. If something appeals to you, include it. The references that say "I love this but I don't know why" are often the most useful ones we receive. We will work out what it means together.

Your home, your life

Think about how you
actually use your home.

Good design solves real problems and supports real life. Before the scope meeting, think carefully about how your household actually functions day to day. Not how you think it should function, but how it genuinely does.

You do not need to write a report. Just spend some time thinking about these things before the meeting so they are fresh in your mind when we ask.

Morning routines
How many people are getting ready at once? Where does that happen? What works and what creates friction?
How you spend time at home
Where does the family gather? Do you cook together or separately? Do you work from home? Do the kids need a space that is theirs?
How you entertain
Do you host regularly or rarely? Large groups or intimate dinners? Inside or outside? Formal or relaxed?
What drives you mad about your current home
The dark hallway, the bathroom that never has enough space, the kitchen that faces the wrong way. These are as important as anything on your wish list.
Storage
Almost every client underestimates this. Think about what you own, where it lives now, and what you wish you had a place for.
The right people in the room

Make sure all decision
makers can attend.

The scope meeting works best when everyone involved in making decisions is in the room together. If one person attends and then reports back to another, something always gets lost. Those gaps tend to show up later in the process when they are harder and more expensive to resolve.

If you are building or renovating as a couple, both of you should be there. If there are other people whose input matters, talk to us in advance about how to include them.

We ask good questions and we listen carefully. But we can only work with what is in the room.

We ask good questions and we listen carefully. But we can only work with what is in the room.

What comes next

After the pre-design
meeting.

Once the pre-design stage is complete, we will have a clear and resolved brief, a detailed understanding of your site, and everything we need to move into the design stage with confidence.

You will receive a summary of the pre-design outcomes before we proceed, so you can confirm everything is captured correctly before design work begins.

If anything comes up between now and the meeting, whether a question, a thought, or something you want to make sure we know, send it through. We would rather have more information than less going into the room.

anthony@synergybd.com.au
sophie@synergybd.com.au
eloise@synergybd.com.au
1300 133 125
Synergy Building Design
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