Dawn and Katie talk shop, introducing the design process for a textile project and an architecture/design project.

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Dawn leads off, describing how the design process begins at Oliveira Textiles, focusing — for the purposes of discussion today — on how she works with homeowners and interior designers. After identifying the nature of a project and the scope of work, Dawn and her clients consider pattern, color, and fabric material.

The images above illustrate a bit of Dawn’s design process at her studio.

The first image in the slideshow above is of the selected artwork: the Anemone pattern in repeat.
The second image captures a “strike off” (or printed sample for color approval) of the pattern in storm grey on Hemp/Organic Cotton in twill and in herringbone.
The third image is of the printed yardage.
The fourth is the final product: a pillow in Anemone hemp/organic cotton twill and an upholstered parlor chair in Dawn’s Ripple Effect pattern, also in storm grey and in hemp/organic cotton twill.

Dawn prepares detailed pricing quotes for clients based on their selections, which can help clients prioritize and finalize the scope of work in advance.

Determining the scope of work for an architecture/design project is also critical to the design process for Katie and the homeowners who retain Katie Hutchison Studio.

Katie introduces the architecture design process at KHS for renovation/additions and new construction. In the podcast, Katie refers to a KHS ranch-house renovation/addition project in Wenham, MA. Here’s a link to that project on the KHS website. Oliveira Textiles provided fabric for pillows, upholstery, and window treatments there, as well as a peel-and-stick panel of a jelly fish.

For the purposes of illustrating a bit of the architecture design process here, we’ll see imagery pertaining to a KHS cottage renovation/addition in Warren, RI (which also appears in Katie’s book The New Cottage). The photos below depict an initial first step in a renovation/addition project: documenting existing conditions.

KHS takes such photos and collects detailed measurements in order to create existing condition drawings upon which to base proposed schematic and design-development drawings like those below.

Preliminary drawings such as these can help a homeowner determine scope of work and to evaluate potential design solutions. Once a homeowner has found a schematic approach they would like to pursue, and are comfortable with its design development, then the next step could be to submit their project for review, if required, by relevant governing bodies. If granted approval, as necessary, an architecture/design project is ready to move into the Construction Document phase. That’s when construction plans and elevations like those below (and numerous other dimensioned and noted drawings) are created.

Once the Construction Documents are complete, approximately 70% of the KHS architecture and design services are complete. After a homeowner determines their preferred Construction Delivery system, whether it be with a known and trusted contractor, the result of a competitive bid process facilitated by KHS, or derived by another means, the homeowner enters a contract with a builder, and construction begins, ideally with KHS providing Construction Administration services.

Assuming the homeowner and contractor have entered into an AIA construction contract, KHS reviews the contractor’s applications for payment before they’re submitted to the homeowner for payment. To do so, KHS frequents the site to observe progress, answer questions, and to note additional design opportunities, if and when they arise, while suggesting solutions in keeping with the design criteria established earlier in the project. During this phase, KHS is essentially acting as the homeowner’s agent in the construction process.

Of course, the fun photography is the “after” photography when the design has become constructed reality. Note, above, a custom seat cushion and pillows in Oliveira Textiles’ Spiral Tide pattern in a custom color coordinated with the C2 Paint color of the stair treads.

Find a more detailed description of the architecture design process at the KHS website.

For both textile and architecture/design projects, Dawn and Katie recommend listeners (and readers) contemplate the project triangle in which three project characteristics are considered: speed, quality, and cost. Dawn created the graphic below as a reference.

Similar such triangles have been made by others to represent project management characteristics; the idea is that you can only have two of these characteristics at a time. We’ve slightly edited the names of the characteristics for our purposes. So, for example, if you can only pick two top priorities, and you pick “Fast” and “Inexpensive” that means the third characteristic “High Quality” is left out. In terms of a product design, this certainly makes sense. You can’t expect quality craftsmanship or quality materials if a product is to be made quickly and inexpensively. If instead you chose “Fast” and “High Quality” then “Inexpensive” gets left out. In terms of product design, this also makes sense. If you want something quickly that’s of high-quality production, then it’s going to be expensive.

But then Dawn and Katie puzzled over what if you chose the two characteristics at the bottom of the triangle “Inexpensive” and “Quality”? How is that even possible? How can you have those two at the same time (regardless of speed)? Well, in the product world, Dawn suggested that IKEA might be creating just such products. IKEA has brought high-quality design to the creation of affordable products. So in such a scenario, the materials may be lower quality/inexpensive, but the design of the product is high quality. This prompted Katie to suggest that in architecture, you might similarly consider high design and a resulting inexpensive product in the work of the Rural Studio at Auburn University in Alabama.

Katie noted that there is a Rural Studio 20K project included in her first book The New Small House. The Rural Studio is a student group led by a professor that designs and builds small affordably constructed homes for residents of Hale County, Alabama who own land. Learn more about the Rural Studio here. They are bringing thoughtful, high-quality design to the creation of affordable dwellings, which often involves using inexpensive materials in creative ways. Such an approach generally requires a homeowner who is open to the unconventional in terms of finish material selection — like clear-finished plywood floors or corrugated metal ceilings or untrimmed sheetrock or exposed, unfinished framing… However, professional (as opposed to student generated) custom, high-quality residential design projects intended to be constructed inexpensively (in much of the U.S.) will likely require considerable high-quality design time to achieve, which, accordingly, could mean more expensive design fees. So, back to the triangle, if you select “Inexpensive” and “High Quality” as your project priorities, not only will the construction not be fast, but the design will not be fast. And since many architects charge by the hour, such design services will not be inexpensive. But, in such a scenario, the resulting custom project could reflect high-design constructed less expensively.

There’s lots of nuance here. But hang in there with Katie and Dawn. This episode was Part 1 of Design Process; future episode will explore in greater detail different aspects of the Design Process. Stay tuned.