Talk about routines
Where does the day begin? Who cooks, works or studies at home? How often do guests stay? These ordinary patterns reveal more about the right plan than a room schedule alone.
Name the priorities
Every project balances area, budget, programme and quality. Ranking what matters most gives the design team a clear basis for decisions and prevents the project from becoming a collection of competing ideas.
Leave room to discover
A good brief is precise without prescribing the answer. It defines the problem clearly while allowing the design process to uncover connections and possibilities that were not obvious at the start.