OTP Design’s Design Process
By OTP Design's Director of Design - Austin E.
Intro
Our design process has been laid out to be as simple and straightforward as possible to get you from an initial concept all the way to building permits in hand so that you can bring your dream project to life. From Concept To Reality. We Bring Our Design To You.
Property Development Report
Our Property Development Report helps us analyze your property to determine how the zoning by-laws and any external factors will impact your desired scope of work. This is the first step to see if the house, addition, multiplex, laneway or garden suite that you’re thinking of will be feasible on your property. If we find the desired scope of work will exceed the zoning by-laws then we’ll advise if minor variances are required at committee of adjustment. Committee of adjustment is a municipal process that provides relief from the zoning by-laws when they can’t be met.
As-builts and/or Design Intake Meeting
Once we know your project will be feasible, we’ll do a design intake meeting with you to go through your “wish list” and reconfirm the scope of work. A new topographic survey will be required for most projects so that we can accurately plot out what fits on your property. We might also have to work with an arborist if there’s any work proposed close to a tree to make sure we don’t negatively impact the tree. For most projects, we’ll come out to do some as-built measurements which helps us to model any features of your existing house that we may need. This gives us a basis to work from so that we can merge any new elements with existing features.
Design Development & Meetings
Now we get to the most immersive part for the client. We’ll guide you through the design development to make sure we get the design “On The Point”.
Our first design meeting will typically include two iterations of the proposed floor plan layouts along with a black and white exterior massing to show the scale of the proposed work. We’ll determine which layout is most suitable and hone in on it from here.
Our second design meeting will develop the selected floor plan further. We may even do an alternate iteration of the plan to decide between a specific part of the plan. The exterior massing will also start to be detailed to bring it to life.
Our third design meeting will finalize the floor plan. We also put together 3-D interior views so that you can get a visualization of how the new spaces will look. We also do exterior renders showing the selected cladding materials, landscaping and massing of the neighbour’s property to see how your project relates to its surroundings.
Zoning/Construction Drawings & Municipal Review
Now that the design is complete, we’ll develop the drawings with the critical information needed to obtain building permits from the municipality and make it feasible for a contractor to build. Our construction drawings are coordinated with any external consultants needed such as structural engineers, HVAC designers, surveyors, and geotechnical engineers to create a cohesive drawing package. We also help navigate through any external authorities such as forestry or conservation bodies. In the case where committee of adjustment is needed, we’ll isolate a zoning drawing package after the design is done to make sure we receive approvals first before heading into construction drawings.
Conclusion
At this point you’ll have building permits in hand which means you can get started on the construction process of your dream project. We’re still here to help as we’ll come out at major stages of construction to track the progress until the build is completed.
