Eco-Build

Welcome to the A.K. Smith Architects Eco-Building section. Here, we outline for you how dependable processes fit perfectly well with a Sustainable Building approach. Sustainable Building is all about streamlining efficiencies and utilizing materials that offer long-lasting results with reduced environmental impacts. A total win-win proposal!

We begin our approach by collecting as much information as we can about our Client—your needs, the specific project, your vision, and available resources. The Sustainable part comes into play when you consider the required resources to build the structure with its long-term costs to maintain a desired comfortable environment that is enjoyable for generations to come.

We listen carefully to your ideas and dreams. We encourage our clients to be as open and thoughtful as possible. Research and Dialogue lead to the generation of a customized Program that reflects you.  No ideas or materials are too extreme to incorporate.

This Client Program consists of three parts:

• Absolute Requirements: The essential needs that triggered the project for you.
• Optional Requirements: Usually a choice based on your desired performance or budget.
• Special Requirements: Unique details that would make this project particularly distinctive and dear to you.

This Client Program becomes the framework within which we create your design solution.

PROGRAM TO PROCESS
Using your Program as a template, we explore and evaluate together the many ideas and solutions available. Collaboration during this process is essential to us. We believe in listening carefully to our client, especially concerning the site. Our experience is revealed in successfully completed projects of enduring value, appropriate to their occupants and surroundings. We extensively explore subjective and conceptual aspects of projects using visual references and functional preferences from our client and our own reading of the selected site and the context. This initial part of the process reveals the opportunities and limitations of a given project that results in the Schematic Design.

At this point, we review and reassess our Program and its Budget with our client’s initial program. Once a final layout is approved, the budget is clear and the client’s program is firm, we move into the Design Development Phase. Here, we refine and enhance the Floor Plans, firm up window and door sizes and locations, and reassess the entire building envelope, including roof options.  

When the Project meets the Client owners’ scope and budget and we have positive feedback from you, the project moves to its next phase, Construction Documents. In Construction Documents, we dimension, detail, and specify major elements of the project. Drawings, schedules, and specifications are part of the Contract Document package vital to every project. We add Consultants as required to the team at this phase, including structural, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, lighting, and landscapers as well as interior designers. Once this package is complete, the drawings are ready to submit to the City/County for Plan Check and to obtain approval for Building Permits. Drawings are typically released to Contractors for bidding at this time. We then review Bids and select a Contractor.

Finally, the Project moves into its final phase, Construction Observation. During this phase, we are intimately involved with the job site and building progress. Most issues of interpretation and communication (that can lead to tensions and/or cost increases) are avoided with regular site meetings every step along the way. Often new opportunities arise as the project progresses from paper to actual materials and implementation, and revisions and modification are a crucial part of every project’s success.