Design Process

This is an exciting time - you’ve decided to make your home in Assiniboine Landing! Now comes the translation of your hopes and dreams and needs for your new home into architectural plans, and then into reality. The realization of your dream home takes a dedicated team: you and your designer/architect and your builder, together with the Assiniboine Landing Design Consultant. We’re here to help you every step of the way so that the whole process happens as smoothly as possible.

To ensure a neighbourhood of attractive, high quality and appropriate residences, each home in Assiniboine Landing goes through the following design process. The more you learn about this special neighbourhood, and your own needs, the more you’ll appreciate the attention to detail in the Community Development Guidelines that set the standard for Assiniboine Landing. (Please see Downloads for the Guidelines.)

1. Learn about Assiniboine Landing

The neighbourhood in which you choose to build your new home should always be a consideration in your home design. In fact, most neighbourhoods of quality have architectural standards, the difference at Assiniboine Landing is that we incorporate a consideration of nature into our process. Learning all you can about Assiniboine Landing: its history, development concept, the steps taken to protect its natural resources, and the vision of its future will be of benefit. To begin with, there’s lots of this information on this Website: the history, site plan, magazine articles, and the downloads - Living with Nature and Community Development Guidelines. You can also check with the Qualico representatives.

2. Get to Know Your Land

Walk your property; spend time there. Learn the lay of the land and where the light falls at different times of the day. Visit it in all kinds of weather. Decide which views you like best and imagine how you would like your home oriented. Take photographs, make sketches, talk about the possibilities.

3. Request Your Plot Plan

For your convenience, Qualico will provide you with a Plot Plan of your home site showing the following:

• property lines with dimensions
• site and building envelope limits
• lot grades
• existing and proposed utility lines and connection locations
• existing and proposed roads.
  

4. Select Your Team

Custom designing and building a home of this quality is no simple task. (Please see Site Planning Principles under Step 5.) You’ll need an experienced team that believes in your dream and the possibilities of Assiniboine Landing. Your team should include:

• a designer/architect to help you identify your specific needs and incorporate them into a home;
• a landscape architect to analyze the site and design the outdoor spaces in conjunction with the house - preferably someone with experience in blending a Manicured Yard with native borders and woodlands;
• a builder, and
• Assiniboine Landing's Design Consultant, who will review your proposed home design for compatibility and appropriateness of scale, proportion, massing, details and materials.

5. Meet with Your Designer/Architect

Now for the exciting, creative, and challenging task of designing your home! First, together with your designer or architect, compile a list of the rooms and outdoor spaces that you want. Include details such as the function and size of rooms, furniture and equipment to be located in your house, the relationship between the rooms, and what role the outdoor spaces will play.

Next, visit the site with your designer/architect and imagine how it will all come together. What view would you like to have from the living room window? Where can you locate the breakfast nook to catch the morning sun? How to best orient the house, considering drainage, sun and shade, privacy and access? Picture how your new home and the site can be formed into a unified whole.

Pass on any photos of homes, exteriors and interiors, architectural details, and landscaping that you like to your team so they get a sense of your personal style and taste.

Site Planning Principles

As you begin the design process, the following Site Planning Principles should be communicated to your team. Some are general principles that your team will automatically observe, others are particular to Assiniboine Landing.

Home and landscape features must be located and oriented carefully on the site to:

• preserve the existing landforms, vegetation and drainage patterns;
• integrate the buildings and site improvements into the natural setting;
• take the best advantage of views and sunlight;
• achieve the proper balance of visibility and privacy;
• create sheltered, comfortable outdoor areas, usable through extended seasons by the use of land forms, buildings and plants, and
• retain excess storm water on site in ponds and natural features, thus further protecting downstream drainage routes.

The siting of buildings is critical to the design success not only of individual homes, but the neighbourhood as a whole. Side yard setbacks and staggering of houses on adjacent lots can provide for privacy, separation and an improved streetscape.

6. Develop Conceptual Drawings

Based on all of the input received through Step 5, the designer/architect will develop preliminary architectural sketches or a rough model to illustrate your home’s design concept. It’s important at this stage that you imagine living in this particular house, and how it will function, to ensure you haven’t missed anything vital, and to see if it feels right.

7. Design Concept Review

Once you’re satisfied with the preliminary design concept, submit it, along with the materials outlined below, to the Assiniboine Landing Design Consultant for consideration of how well the design fits with the Assiniboine Landing design philosophy.

For the Review, please include the following:

• the Architectural Approval Form (please see Downloads)
• conceptual site plan
• floor plans
• elevations for all four sides, and

8. Design Development

After the initial Design Review, your home’s design can be refined if necessary, and then developed, as the exterior and all of the rooms inside must be done in detail. You should now also be able to obtain preliminary cost estimates from your builder.

9. Final Design Review

Once you are happy with your final design, a Final Review by the Assiniboine Landing Design Consultant is necessary, to ensure that the design has been developed in keeping with the original concept and that it still meets the Assiniboine Landing Guidelines.

For final review, please provide the following:

• the Architectural Approval Form (please see Downloads)
• conceptual site plan
• floor plan
• elevations for all four sides
• a perspective sketch of the most prominent view, and
• colour boards showing exterior materials and colour.

The design of your home is now complete. Next the designer will prepare construction drawings and specifications which the builder will use for construction of your new home.