what a good brief actually looks like

the brief is not a wish list. it is a document of constraints.

the most useful brief a client can bring to a first meeting is not a list of things they like. it is a list of things that cannot be compromised: the child's bedroom must be close to the master bedroom. the kitchen must be visible from the living room. there must be somewhere to put shoes at the front door. the study must be separated from the rest of the house when the door is closed.

these constraints are the actual brief. everything else is preference — and preferences change. constraints do not.

what most clients bring instead

most clients arrive with a collection of saved images, a rough budget, and a sense of aesthetic direction. this is useful raw material. it is not a brief. the designer's job is to interrogate these inputs — to find the constraints hiding inside the preferences — and to produce a brief that can guide the project through the inevitable moments when budget, site conditions, or structural realities force decisions to be made.

the questions that produce a real brief

who lives in this space, and what is their daily routine? this question is the most important one. a couple with a six-month-old child has different requirements to the same couple five years later. a person who works from home has different requirements to a person who commutes. the brief should reflect the life that will be lived in the space — not an imagined life, the actual one.

what is the single thing that, if wrong, would make you unhappy with the project? this question surfaces the client's real priority, which is often different to what they have said the priority is. it also gives the designer a clear mandate for where to concentrate quality.

what has not worked in your current home, and why? the answer to this question is more valuable than any inspiration reference. it tells the designer what the space must not do.

how we run the briefing process

our briefing process takes two sessions. the first is open: we listen and record. the second is structured: we test what we heard against the reality of the space and the budget. by the end of the second session, we have a written brief that both parties have signed off on. the brief is a living document — it is revised when reality requires it, and every revision is documented. start a project with a brief that will actually drive the design.