Project Planning and Design
What to know
Project Planning and Design covers site inventory and analysis, programming, concept development, schematic design, and design development. Know how to separate existing conditions (inventory) from conclusions (analysis), build a program from client needs, and test a concept against zoning, accessibility, circulation, and environmental constraints. Be comfortable with bubble diagrams, adjacency matrices, scale, and fit-testing buildings and parking on a site.
Traps
Questions often blur program with concept, or ask for the "best first step" when the tempting answer jumps to form. Inventory precedes analysis; analysis precedes synthesis. Watch for answers that ignore a stated constraint such as a wetland, easement, setback, or mature tree, or that overdesign. Distinguish schematic design from design development: schematic fixes organization and scale; DD refines materials and systems. Also watch scale: a bubble diagram has no scale.
Worked example
A client needs a 6,000 sf one-story building, 30 parking spaces, and a 20 ft landscape buffer. At about 350 sf per stall including drive aisle, parking needs roughly 10,500 sf. The building plus service may need 9,000 sf, and the buffer and circulation add more. Compare that total to buildable area after setbacks and constraints before drawing a shape. If the numbers do not fit, change the program or site, not the line weight.
Rule of thumb: start with a 1:1,000 or 1:500 site diagram and test circulation and parking before building form.