New Homes

Most new homes move from first consult to council-ready documentation over a few months, depending on the scale of the project and how quickly decisions are made together. We’ll set out a realistic timeline at the initial consult so you always know what’s next.

Every home is different, so design fees are quoted per project once we understand your site, scope and level of detail. We’ll walk you through the investment openly at the start, with no jargon and no surprises later.

Yes. We manage the council, BRC and final DA approval process end to end, including documentation, lodgement and liaison, so you never have to chase the approvals needed to get your project going.

Where it helps, yes. Realistic 3D renders and walkthroughs let you picture your new home beyond a 2D plan — the facade, the spaces and the overall flow — before building begins.

We connect you with established South Australian builders and trades suited to your project, budget, style and preferred build process, so the transition from design to construction is a smooth one.

Briefs evolve, and that’s part of the process. Because the design is founder-led and resolved through iteration, we can talk changes through as they come up and fold them in while keeping the project aligned to your budget and timeline.

No. There is no legal requirement in South Australia to use an architect for a house, a renovation, an extension or a small development. A building designer can take a project from the first sketch through council approval and into construction documentation.

The difference comes down to registration. “Architect” is a protected title under South Australia’s Architectural Practice Act, and only people registered with the Architectural Practice Board of South Australia can use it. Building designers qualify through a different pathway and work mostly in residential design.

Plenty of the homes going up across Adelaide were designed and documented by building designers. The more useful question is who will answer the phone when something comes up on site. Scott has fifteen years in the building industry behind him, which tends to show up once the drawings reach a builder.

A draftsperson prepares drawings. Usually they are documenting a design that already exists, whether it came from you, a builder or someone else, and the job is to get it accurate enough for council and for the trades.

A building designer does the design as well as the drawings. That means working out how the house sits on the block, how the rooms relate to each other, how it handles the sun and the wind and the neighbours, then producing the documentation that gets it approved and built.

An architect does that same work under a registered title. Registration in South Australia is handled by the Architectural Practice Board.

SPACE is a building design studio. The name carries “Drafting” because that is where the business started, and the drafting still happens here. The design work sits alongside it.

Yes. Narrow frontages are common across Adelaide’s inner and western suburbs, and they are where a standard plan usually fails. The design has to earn every metre. Where the car goes, how light reaches the middle of the house, whether the outdoor space is genuinely private, and how the frontage reads from the street.

At Grange we unlocked two independent homes on a single established allotment without either reading as half a duplex. Setting the shared boundary wall back is what gave each one its own street presence.

Yes. A slope affects cost before it affects design, because excavation, retaining and site access all follow from it. Working with the fall is almost always cheaper than levelling the site.

At Stirling the block slopes and sits under a heritage overlay, with bushfire compliance on top. The contemporary pavilion addition captures the elevated views rather than fighting the topography.

Yes. Both are usually a response to the site rather than a style preference. A split level suits a block with a fall through it. Going up suits a site where council height limits and footprint restrictions leave no other way to get the accommodation you need.

At Tennyson a four-level design with undercroft parking and a rooftop terrace was how we stayed inside the council’s height and development restrictions on a tight coastal site.

Often, yes. Both set the footprint before design begins, so they need to be understood at the start rather than discovered at approval stage.

At Prospect a heritage overlay and a significant tree were the reasons volume builders could not accommodate the brief. The bespoke Art Deco home was approved by designing within both constraints from the outset.