ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
HOW IS AN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN MADE?
The drafting of a good quality Design usually passes through several stages, of which, contrary to what one might think, the “drawing” is the last. In fact, the drawing represents the final point of arrival, and serves to clearly establish all the fundamental points of the intervention.
First, however, we almost always need to analyze a series of aspects, first and foremost the urban planning compliance of the property itself, or more simply, its correspondence with any drawings/documents already held by the Municipality. At this stage, it is always necessary to conduct a preliminary architectural survey to determine whether the actual measurements actually match those filed.
If the correspondence is verified, the drawings held by the Municipality can be used as the basis for our project. If any discrepancies are found, it will be necessary to proceed with a Building Amnesty—often called Accertamento di Conformità —which can be more or less complex, depending on the discrepancies found.
Once this is established, we move on to defining some more practical aspects of the actual project (type of structure, materials to be used, shape of the land, cost of the works, etc.) and others more closely related to building and urban planning regulations (landscape restrictions, distances to be respected, maximum permitted heights, minimum room size, etc.).
This preliminary study is absolutely important: it will help us to reduce unforeseen events during the construction phase, speed up the time required and keep costs down. In addition, it will make it clear to both us and the contractor what we want to achieve.
Only when we have defined the “overall picture” will we be able to present our final project to the Municipality, whose approval will allow us to start our works.
WHO IS THE WORKS DIRECTOR?
The Works Director is the technical figure in charge of checking that the construction is carried out exactly as planned.
He also has to plan site operations, check that no problems arise during construction and if necessary propose changes to the original Project.
At the end of the works, the Works Director will also fill in the Declaration of Completion of Works, and proceed to the Acceptance of the Works.