Amelia Lee from Undercover Architect shares some common themes that tend to crop up on owner-builder projects (particularly with people who are doing this for the first time) and explains how they can be avoided by creating a clear foundation of your values and project intentions.
Interview with Amelia Lee
This is the second of Ben Adam-Smith’s interviews from his time in Australia and in this episode we have a chat Amelia Lee from Undercover Architect. Amelia has been an architect for 30 years and in that time worked on wide range of different projects, as well as three of her own renovations. 10 years ago she decided that she wanted to expand her reach to help more people and left her practice to start Undercover Architect as a platform to provide educational resources that help inform and empower new owner-builders (‘self-builders’ in the UK). In that time she has built a community of confident owner-builders that are well resourced to advocate for sustainable building practices and create homes that help them live well.
In this chat, Amelia and Ben compare their experiences of working with people who want to build new or renovate existing dwellings, and identify the most common challenges that occur.
Don’t rush the planing stages!
Many people focus on the build stage of a project, but there are 3 crucial stages before you get there which will determine the success of your build.
There a 4 phases to any project:
- Pre-design
- Design
- Pre-build
- Build
Amelia emphasises that the more work you can do in those first three phases to anticipate and manage the potential risks, the more likely your build will go according to plan. Any changes or delays that happen during the build stage will be very costly so having a good plan in place will help your team work as efficiently as possible.
Pre-design
The pre-design stage forms the background research for your project. You will need to work out your local planning regulations, the limitations of your site and any council requirements that will need to be considered.
Lots of people turn to neighbours or friends for advice on these things and then call it a day, but it is very important that you work out the bigger picture of your construction climate. Amelia explains that some councils in Australia allow owner-builders to fast track their projects through planning if their design meets certain requirements, so knowing these things will help you mould your building design to receive local support and avoid potential obstacles.
“It’s like playing any game, when you find out the rules first, you can create the greatest strategy in order to be able to be most expeditious and efficient in how you do things.”
Get to know your budget
This stage is also where you figure out your budget. The budget must be revisited at every stage, but it is most important to start with a good understanding of what you have available so that anything you take on from this point will be working in accordance with this.
Establish your values
You also need to work out what you want to achieve and establish your values that will create the foundations of your design. What are your big picture goals? How do you want your house to work for you?
“You will need to make something like 15,000 decisions. This gives you some way to anchor yourself to and check against to guide the decision making overall so you don’t get lost in the process.”
Design
The design phase is about figuring out how these spaces, places and rooms are going to work best for you. How do you need the house to function best for you?
Your current home can tell you a lot about your future one
You can begin to work this out by analysing your current home, looking at which bits work well for you – maybe you like how your kitchen is close to the front door so you can unpack your shopping easily or that your living room faces south so is always full of light. But also working out which parts don’t work for you, like the separate dingy dining room that becomes a dumping ground. Knowing how you want to use a space will help you create a design that works best for you.
The orientation of your site is important to know
Amelia explains that understanding the orientation of your site and working out how your house could sit best within it will allow you to optimise the liveability. By considering the positioning, the climate, neighbouring properties, surroundings and even a nice view or feature that you would like to showcase, you begin to create signposts for your design. Knowing these factors can also help to increase energy efficiency by utilising solar gains for heating or natural shading features that can help with cooling.
Explore the different construction methods available
In this phase it is also really important to explore all the construction and design options out there so you can pick the one that best meets the requirements you outlined in the pre-design stage. It can be easy to fall into the trap of following the standard or most common construction path, but this might not be the best path for you and your build.
Always keep one eye on your budget to make sure you are still on track!
The design stage will start giving you an idea of the cost of your project, make sure you are sticking to your budget and checking that you can afford what you are planning.
“Your budget is going to dictate the size of your house right from the outset and the level of finish that you can expect. If it’s not going to be enough, then you need to figure out if you need to find more money? Or do you have to radically reduce the size of our property before we begin?”
Pre-build
The Pre-build phase is all about formulating your practical construction plan and assembling your team. This will include looking at your building approvals, finalising your building materials and construction methods and collating all of your documentation. In this section, you will need to keep referring to the values you established right at the beginning and make sure you are making decisions that are in alignment with those.
Create a clear plan for your build
This stage should focus on formulating a comprehensive build plan with detailed drawings and specifications that will hopefully reduce the need for you to make quick and maybe uniformed decisions under pressure.
“Drawings, specifications, those kinds of things are the language with which the construction industry understands how things get done, and so the more you can put into that information is super important.”
Test your energy efficiency now
Make sure you spend some time testing the energy efficiency of your design, pre-build. PHPP will be very useful at this stage to test the functionality and provide a picture of the energy movement in your design before you have it set in stone… or timber.
Assemble your dream team
Choosing your team is very important – trust your gut and pick people who align with your values or have experience in what you are aiming to achieve. Remember, these people will be in your life for anywhere from a few months to a few years!
Build
This stage will involve spending the most money and watching the physical progress of your build but if you have completed the first three stages well, this should go pretty smoothly. Of course, there will always be a few hiccups along the way which you can’t predict, but the structure and values that you have created should help you navigate these with ease.
Key things to remember here are to be as present as possible and make sure that you are referring back to your values when obstacles arise.
Work out an accurate budget and stick to it
A clear and realistic budget is very important in a build project. Amelia explains that in her 30 year career most of her clients have a budget that is 50 – 75% of where it needs to be to match their initial aspirations for their home. This figure has tracked consistently regardless of price rises in construction due to inflation, covid, etc. Being realistic about what you can get for your money and making sure you are including all costs (such as planning application fees, landscaping costs, internal finishes, etc) in your budget is crucial.
Your team can help you predict your costs
It can be a good idea to work with someone who has experience in the specifics of your build, so you know that they have some knowledge of how much it is likely to cost. It can be useful to include your builder in the design process as a consultant, in order to get a realistic idea of the cost whilst you still have time to amend designs.
If you are working with someone who isn’t experienced with Passivhaus or sustainable building, Amelia recommends building in a 20-30% contingency into the budget as the cost of certain processes will probably be more than they have accounted for.
“Your builder can actually be providing input on cost and buildability from the outset, and that includes at that very first meeting, when you say my budget is x, and I want to do y. The builder and the architect can sit there and say, well, from our previous projects, we know that the y that you’re asking for, it traditionally will cost this amount per square metre based on these kinds of finishes. Or if you want to do these kinds of finishes, it’ll cost this amount.”
Don’t feel the need to max out your budget
Owner-builders often push their budgets to the absolute max and this trend seems to be regardless of starting budget. Like many things in life, the bigger the budget, the more we try and do, which is consistently meaning people take it right up to the limit. In the planning stages, work out a realistic budget if you can and if you don’t have enough, work out if you can downsize the footprint or some way to reduce the cost.
Amelia does point out that there are occasions where adding an extra bedroom to increase the property value, will also increase the build costs but may allow you to secure a higher loan to build with. Because of the way the housing market and financial services work, there might be creative solutions to be found but definitely try and work out what’s best for you.
“My experience with homeowners doing their own homes, is that they will spend the most amount of money that they can without financially crippling themselves.”
Your project starts with you
Many people think that their project will begin when they have hired an architect or designer and therefore might put off doing so until they are ‘ready’. Amelia highlights that there are several steps you can take prior to this which include exploring how you want your house to function and establishing the values of your project. This may need to happen before you hire anyone as these will dictate who you are looking for, in regards to their experience, ethos and general practice.
Amelia notes that it is crucial to be asking the right questions when meeting potential architects and designers. Rather than attempting to gain as much free information about your project as possible, try to get to know as much as you can about them and their practices.
“Who is this person? What are they like? How do they run their business? How professional are they? What do they communicate like? Are you going to be able to handle having this person in your life for the next 12 months to two years? Are you aligned in the goals you operate your life with? And how are they going to best support you in navigating something you’ve never done before?”
Don’t fall into the trap of the status quo
It can often feel like the standard formula for house building is to prioritise size over quality. Amelia explains that when her clients spend time thinking frankly about who they are and how they want to live in their future home, they end up realising that they need less space than they initially thought. As a result they get their rooms and budgets working far harder for them and it sets them up to find the right people to support them in that journey as well.
“One of my big, hairy, audacious goals is for everybody to build a site specific response. It’s how you create climate resilience, climate sensitivity, you improve the energy efficiency of your home, you lower its energy, heating and cooling costs, and most of all, you actually make it a better home to live in for yourself personally. The thing is that most of our housing stock doesn’t do this, so most people are living without that experience on a day to day basis. They just don’t understand from a firsthand point of view, the incredible difference it makes the everyday life to live in a house that works for your site.”
Creating a design that maximises these things will help you follow the principles of Sarah Susanka and utilise every space in your house, everyday.
Sustainability must be a foundational theme for it to be effective
Sticking to your sustainable goals in an industry that has not embraced them yet can be quite challenging. It is all too common for it to fall by the wayside when clients hit a professional in the industry who says sustainability will just cost you more. It’s not the job of your professional to tell you it’s too expensive. It’s up to them to tell you what your choices will mean and cost, and you to decide what your priorities and values are. By assembling the right team and putting in the work in the early stages, you will be much more likely to succeed with your sustainability goals.
Sustainability Bolt-ons
Too often in house building we see sustainability advertised as a bolt on service. Amelia views this approach as a form of greenwashing in the industry, as it creates a false economy by giving people a free pass to design oversized and inefficient houses that are perceived as sustainable because they have solar panels on the roof.
“We’re all living on a planet and we know our choices, impact everyone in everything that we do. Building a house is no different and you’re embedding those choices for a very long time.”
It is important to view sustainability as a foundational concept in your design, so that the entire structure can be created with this in mind. It is crucial to not get distracted from this goal because the end product will not only improve the sustainability of your home, but also improve the way you get to live in it.
“I feel that sustainability actually starts and is most heavily impacted in the decisions that you make before you begin, about the size of the project that you’re going to build and in how you’re going to make it suit its climate. If you can get those two things right, you will be 80% of the way there before you even start worrying about solar power”
Don’t outsource your agency
Amelia’s closing reflections highlight the importance of being an informed and confident owner-builder:
“I really encourage people to not to not outsource their agency. At the end of the day, it’s your home, and so no one’s going to care as much about it as you do. I want you to know that you unlock what is possible for your future home because it’s your decisions, your money, your vision, that’s the reason this whole project is happening. So it’s really important that you get yourself educated and informed before you begin.”
The journey can be a great opportunity for personal growth:
“I love with empowering homeowners, particularly women who are stepping into a male dominated industry. In the renovation and construction industry, women are making 80% of the purchasing decisions and yet they’re dealing with mostly men as they do this. I see them get to the end of their project, and they turn around and look at what they’ve been able to accomplish for their family and consider what else they are capable of? I just get really excited about what it unlocks for people in terms of readjusting their expectations of themselves as well.”
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