To prepare for a first meeting with an architect, you mainly need to know what bothers you about your current home, what works well and how you want to live in it. A folder of paperwork is optional. Surveying the existing building and working out what the regulations allow is the studio's job, and at CARLO Design it is part of interior design. After this first conversation you receive a cost estimate, a design direction and a timeline, before you commit to anything.
Most checklists on this subject were written for new builds. They ask for land registry extracts, zoning plans and easement records, and they assume the meeting happens in the architect's office. Our work looks different. We work mostly with existing buildings, as an interior designer in Berlin and on Mallorca, in Altbau apartments and Mallorcan houses, and we come to you. So this is about the conversation that takes place in your own living room.
How to prepare the content
Before the meeting, walk slowly through your home once and answer two questions. What irritates you every day without you ever having said it out loud? And what would you never want to lose?
The design builds on those answers. The dark hallway, the kitchen where there is always one person too many, the bathroom you use in half light because it has no window: sentences like these help us more than a wish list of materials. They describe how you use the rooms, and we cannot see that from the outside.
An honest description of your routines is just as valuable. When do you cook, and how many people are in the kitchen? Where do coats, bags, post and shoes actually end up? Does someone work from home, and does that spot need a door and quiet? Do guests stay overnight or only come for dinner? If we design for an idealised routine, the layout will not fit the one you actually have.
Why you should name your budget range
Many owners deliberately hold back their budget in a first meeting, worried that naming a figure will simply make the design more expensive. That is understandable, but it usually ends up costing more.
For us a budget is a planning parameter. It decides whether a bathroom stays where it is or moves, whether storage is made by a joiner or bought, whether a renovation runs in one go or is sensibly split into phases. Without it we are guessing, and you end up with a scheme you later have to cut back. With it, we can tell you during the meeting whether your expectations and your range meet, even when the answer is uncomfortable.
If you do not have a range yet, that is useful information too. In that case the cost estimate you receive after our visit will help you set one.
Which documents help
If floor plans came with your purchase papers, bring them out. They save us time when measuring and sometimes reveal things you cannot see on site, such as an earlier conversion. The same goes for the building's ownership documents, an energy certificate, older surveys or, on Mallorca, whatever property paperwork exists.
If you have none of it, the meeting works just as well. In older buildings the drawings rarely match what was actually built, and we measure up ourselves when in doubt. A missing document is no reason to postpone the meeting.
What to bring
| What you bring | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| What frustrates you about your home today | Names the problem the design has to solve |
| What you want to keep at all costs | Makes sure original features and favourite pieces survive the renovation |
| Your real daily routines | Drives layout, storage, light and circulation far more than any question of style |
| An honest budget range | Establishes which interventions are realistic before time goes into a design |
| Your timing constraints | Shows whether the work makes more sense in one go or in phases |
| Images of rooms you like | Makes it easier to talk about taste when you lack the words for it |
| Floor plans and paperwork, if to hand | Speeds up the survey, but is not a precondition |
| Your open questions for us | In a first meeting you are assessing us too |
If you do not yet know what you want
We hear that sentence in almost every first meeting, usually as an apology. It is the normal case. People who already know exactly what they want usually need a contractor more than a studio.
Uncertainty is also seldom as total as it feels. Almost everyone knows precisely what they dislike, and that is enough to work with. A few sentences about daily life and a handful of images you are drawn to without being able to say why usually give a clear direction during the meeting itself. From there we put together proposals you can choose between. How that direction then becomes a project, stage by stage, is described in How an interior design project works.
What we look at when we visit your home
The CARLO Design Project Check starts with a short exchange, after which we come to you. Seeing the property in person is what makes our later assessment reliable. We see how the light moves through the day, how high the rooms really are, where services and risers run, what condition windows, floors and surfaces are in, and where the existing building offers possibilities that appear on no drawing.
Even so, most of the visit is listening. We walk through the rooms with you and let you talk. There is no presentation. Where we can already give you an assessment, we give it on the spot, including when it means a particular wish ends at a load-bearing wall or at a regulation. Saying this early is part of how we work in interior design and on renovation projects.
Questions you should ask us
In a first meeting you are also assessing the studio. Useful questions include:
- Who will actually work on my project, and who is my point of contact during construction?
- Do you also run the site, or does your responsibility end with the drawings?
- How do you arrive at your cost estimate, and what does it include?
- Which trades do you work with, and for how long have you worked with them?
- What happens when something unexpected appears once the work has started?
- How often and in what form will I hear from you while building?
- Can you show me a project comparable to mine in scale and ambition?
We have set this out at length in the questions to ask before hiring an interior designer, together with the answers you should query.
What does not happen in the first meeting
We are not there to sell. Nobody puts a contract in front of you at the end, and nobody pushes you towards a decision. A project that runs for months and affects your home should not be decided under time pressure at the kitchen table.
The meeting does not commit you to anything either. After it you are free to take our assessment further, speak to other studios or postpone the whole idea. Our first meeting is without obligation, and it should be worth your time even if you decide against us.
You will not see a finished design at this stage either. Anyone showing you images of a completed room at the first visit did not make them for you. We leave you with a first direction based on your rooms and our conversation.
What happens afterwards
After the visit we work through what we heard and come back to you with a cost estimate calculated with prices from our established network of trades rather than figures found online, a design direction for your home and a realistic timeline. The timeline includes the waiting periods none of us can speed up.
Only then does the question of working together arise. That order is deliberate. You should decide on the basis of these documents, and not straight after a pleasant conversation.
FAQ
How much does a first meeting with an architect cost?
It varies from practice to practice, and some architects charge an initial consultation as a service. At CARLO Design the first meeting, including the visit to your home, is without obligation. Afterwards you receive a cost estimate, a design direction and a timeline before any appointment is discussed. Do ask other studios directly whether an initial consultation is billed. It is a perfectly normal question.
What should I prepare for a meeting with an architect?
Focus on what you want to say more than on paperwork. Note what frustrates you about your home today, what you want to keep, and how your daily life actually runs: where you cook, work, store things and receive people. Settle on an honest budget range and a rough sense of timing. Images of rooms you like make it easier to talk about taste. Floor plans are welcome if they are to hand, but they are not a precondition.
What does an architect ask in the first meeting?
We ask more about your daily life than about style. How many people live here, and for how long is that likely to stay the case? What does not work day to day? Which rooms go almost unused, and why? How should the home feel when you come back in the evening? Then the practical points: ownership, the condition of services and surfaces, budget range, timing, and whether you intend to stay in the property while the work is going on.
Do I need a floor plan before the first meeting?
No. A floor plan helps if it happens to be in your paperwork, but it is not a condition for a first meeting. In older buildings existing drawings often differ from what was actually built, which is why we measure up ourselves when it matters. More important than any document is that you can describe what you want to change about your home. We take care of measuring and surveying.
Your next step
If you are considering a renovation or a redesign, send us a few sentences about your project, even if you are not sure a conversation is worth it yet. We come to you, we listen, and afterwards we tell you what is possible. Arrange your Project Check, in Berlin or on Mallorca.
What your own project will roughly cost, you can work out in two minutes. Work out your budget →