Pre-Design and Project Planning
The Pre-Design and Project Planning domain tests your ability to frame a project before design begins: client goals, feasibility, budget, schedule, delivery method, and approvals. Expect scenarios that ask for the next action, not a finished design.
Core rules
- Establish scope, budget, schedule, and quality expectations in a written agreement.
- Programming translates user needs into area and adjacency requirements; pre-design tests site capacity and entitlement risk.
- Delivery method (design-bid-build, CM at risk, design-build) changes risk allocation and when the architect is hired.
- Feasibility includes zoning envelope, utility capacity, environmental constraints, and market assumptions.
Worked example
A client proposes a 20,000 sf office on a 1-acre lot zoned FAR 0.5. One acre = 43,560 sf; maximum floor area = 21,780 sf, so the building fits. But if parking requires 1 space per 300 sf, 67 spaces are needed; at 350 sf per space including drive aisle, parking consumes 23,450 sf, leaving too little site area. The correct pre-design response is to flag the parking constraint and verify zoning before proceeding, not to accept the program.
Traps
Confusing pre-design with schematic design; treating a client's stated budget as construction cost without soft costs; ignoring entitlement duration; using gross area for parking calculations.