The very first thing you MUST do when starting on your homebuilding journey.

Choosing to build a house is something many of us find overwhelming. 

We ask ourselves: 

• where do we start?
•  what do we want? 
• how much is it going to cost?
•  are we brave enough to think big? 

In today's world it can be intimidating to sit down and begin the process of designing your dream home.

When I begin anything new I always remember the ancient Chinese saying, “A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step”

The first step is to look at how you are feeling about the adventure you are about to embark on. People will feel a multitude of emotions, apprehension and perhaps a little fearful of the journey ahead are very often very present when we choose to begin the process of creating our dream home.  At the same time, there is excitement about starting something you have spent days, months, even years dreaming about. 

You are looking at a pristine blank canvas of your dream home. 

The first thing to do is clear all preconceived ideas of what a home is and how it is created.  

Why am I telling you this? When I began my architectural studies, I was frustrated at the
projects we were given, they had nothing to do with designing buildings.  I could not see what making a piece of sculpture to Pink Floyd’s song Breathe (In the Air) or making a kite out of paper and balsa wood had to do with designing buildings.  My idea of an architect was somebody who designs buildings.  It took me a year to realise that architecture is much more than buildings. It is about interpreting emotions and experiences into three-dimensional space. 

For me, the best architecture speaks to our heart and connects us to our environment. Architecture that inspires us taps into our desires and lifts us. It inspires us and opens our hearts and minds to what is possible. 

To discover what you truly want, your desires, your unique vision, you must be aware of what has conditioned your thoughts and ideas of a dream house up to this point. Then let them go, free yourself of the ideas you have around creating a dream house. 

By destroying the preconceptions that I had about Architecture, I was able to develop my own ideas about what architecture means for me and my creativity became the vehicle for communicating those ideas to the world. There is a plethora of literature on design styles and tips to create beautiful and inspiring spaces and they all have their rightful place. However, don’t allow them to seduce you and cloud your version of beauty and space. Think about all those beauty magazines showing us a version of what someone else has as defined as beautiful. Do we see them and feel beautiful? 

Only when we are clear about our own very personal definition of beauty can we look at someone else’s with enough objectivity to know if it suits us or not. There are no books or manuals which describe how to design, it is something that must be developed.  

For you to truly discover your vision for a space unique to you all the preconceptions you have about designing a house must be questioned and discarded if they don’t move you.

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