Architectural Design Consultation &
Pre-Design Services

If your renovation is very simple—replacing like-for-like—you may not need an architect. However, if your project involves moving walls, altering the external envelope, or changing room functions, you'll likely need an architect for approvals. Architects also add significant value by offering holistic advice and innovative solutions you may not have considered.

Our consultations include preliminary research specific to your property, an on-site meeting, discussion of your needs and goals, sketches illustrating potential design solutions, a detailed report, budget estimates, and advice on feasibility and next steps.

Council approval requirements vary significantly based on your project's scope, property specifics, and local planning limitations. We'll assess your situation during the consultation to advise what's necessary.

We conduct detailed research on your property, including reviewing council guidelines, planning constraints, and specific site regulations. This preparation ensures a focused, productive consultation.

Simply book your consultation online at your convenience. If you encounter any booking issues or require an urgent appointment, please call or email us—we're here to help.

Pricing details are clearly listed on our consultation booking page.

It's helpful to clarify your objectives, identify the problems you're aiming to solve, and outline your budget constraints, as this guides us in providing tailored advice and solutions.

Consultations typically last about one hour on-site, which allows sufficient time to tour your property, understand your needs, and discuss initial observations and possibilities.

Yes, you'll receive sketches illustrating design options along with a detailed report. Typically, you'll be invited to our office for a follow-up meeting to discuss these sketches, reference projects, and next steps.

It's common to be unsure about the exact scope of your project. The consultation itself helps clarify your needs. We'll guide you by focusing on the problems you're looking to solve and exploring the best solutions.

Yes, we provide at least two design options with associated budget estimates and guidance on potential returns on investment and feasibility.

After the initial consultation, we'll prepare drawings and options and schedule a follow-up meeting at our office to present these findings and discuss potential next steps.

Absolutely. The consultation is an ideal first step in your design and build journey, giving clarity and confidence before committing to further stages.

Yes. The consultation isn't a standalone exercise. The 3D scan, concept sketches, and report all feed directly into the next stages of your project. Because we're working from accurate site data from day one, it substantially reduces time and cost later, compared to starting from a survey at the beginning of a full design engagement.

Yes. If you choose not to go further, you'll keep both 3D concept sketches and the written report as digital PDFs. They're yours.

No, and this isn't unique to Ballast Point. Architects don't release CAD files as a general rule across the industry. It comes down to IP ownership and potential liability embedded in the files. It's also worth knowing that CAD files aren't necessarily interoperable between practices. If we take over a project started elsewhere, we always scan the property and build our own files from scratch anyway.

We invest significant time understanding the core problems you're trying to solve, ensuring our designs align closely with your vision and needs.

We thoroughly research site-specific constraints, including heritage restrictions, before your consultation. Our extensive experience with heritage buildings ensures accurate, reliable advice.

Yes, we excel at identifying hidden opportunities, such as additional floor space, capturing views, or alternative solutions that may significantly enhance your project.

Yes, we tailor each consultation to suit your project's scale, ensuring you receive valuable, appropriate advice whether your renovation is small or extensive.

Design consultations enable us to deliver precise, well-informed advice from the outset, significantly reducing risk, establishing realistic expectations, and providing a solid foundation for any subsequent project stages.

Yes. Our detailed reports and sketches provide ongoing value even if you don't proceed immediately. They're particularly beneficial if selling your property, adding significant value to marketing campaigns.

Consultations benefit anyone considering property improvements, including homeowners planning renovations or extensions, prospective property buyers seeking clarity on future possibilities, and property sellers aiming to enhance their marketing campaigns with professional insights.

Ballast Point will always ensure that a qualified member of the architecture team attends your consultation, along with a member of our construction team where relevant to the service. While we endeavour to have a registered architect present at every appointment, this cannot be guaranteed due to availability. Where a registered architect is unable to attend, your consultation will be conducted by an experienced architecture team member working under the supervision of a registered architect. All consultation outputs, including reports, sketches, and recommendations, are reviewed and endorsed by a registered architect prior to delivery.

Yes. Typically, a licensed builder or someone from the build team will be present to answer your construction-related questions, helping you understand the practicality and difficulty of your plans.

We offer general strategies and broad advice on maintenance issues. However, detailed maintenance—like roof leaks or moisture problems—usually requires hands-on inspection and intervention, which we don’t do during consultations.

Yes, we provide general guidance on structural work, including how difficult it might be and possible structural solutions. However, we cannot specify exact structural details during the consultation.

If an issue arises that needs further investigation, we'll do additional homework or consult specialists such as planning or heritage consultants. We'll clearly inform you if further advice or support is necessary.

Yes. Design, Development Application (DA) and construction documentation can be engaged as a standalone service. There's no obligation to build with us. That said, most clients come to us because we can manage the whole process, and keeping the build option open means the team that designed your project carries it through to site. If you already have a builder you'd like to use, we're also happy to work alongside them.

We genuinely appreciate that existing work, and we won't ignore it. But reviewing and advising on someone else's concept is, in practice, close to the same amount of work as starting fresh. To do it properly, we need to get your existing house into our system in 3D, which requires a measured survey. From there, our Design Consultation Service gives you two design options -- one of which can be based on your existing concept, and another that either improves on it or explores an alternative. That's the right starting point before we can quote any future stages accurately.

You'll get an indicative budget as part of the Design Consultation Service, once the survey and workshop are complete. It comes as a cost band rather than a single figure at that stage -- enough to test your brief against your budget before you commit to detailed documentation.

Because a meaningful proposal has to be grounded in your actual house, your planning context and your brief -- not assumptions. The Design Consultation Service is how we gather all of that. Without it, any quote we gave you would be a guess, and that doesn't serve either of us.