House concept design in Batumi: layouts, massing, facades, siting

House concept design: the main decisions on one sheet

House concept design is the stage where you decide what the house will be: how many storeys, where the entrance and stairs go, which rooms face the sea and which the slope, how the house sits on the plot and how it looks from the street. The architect proposes layout and massing options, shows them in 3D, and the owner chooses and comments. At the concept stage changes cost hours of the architect's time. The same changes on site cost concrete, rebar and weeks.

What the concept includes

• plot analysis: terrain, views, sun, wind, neighbours;
• a check of zoning rules: setbacks, ratios, height;
• two or three options for layout and siting;
• massing and elevations of the chosen option;
• a 3D model for discussion;
• an approximate floor area and construction budget.

A concept needs at least the plot boundary on the ground and a topographic survey, otherwise the house is drawn on guesswork; more on the boundary staking page.

How the work goes

First a conversation: who will live in the house, all year or in summer, how many guests, whether you need a pool, a study, a separate entrance to let part of the house. Then a visit to the plot, where the architect looks at the views, the sun and the neighbours. One or two weeks later come the first options, usually two or three. The owner chooses a direction, the architect develops it, and after a few iterations you get a concept that moves on to the architectural design; more on the architectural design page.

A house by the sea

By the sea the concept decides how to capture the view without getting heat, wind and salt full in the face. The living room and terraces face the sea, but with canopies against the midday sun; bedrooms go where it is quieter and cooler; the plant room and storage are kept away from the sea-facing facade. More about such houses on the houses by the sea page.

3D and visualisation

Not everyone can read plans, so we show the concept as a 3D model: you can walk around the house, look at it from the street and from the sea, and check how shadows fall. If you need a photorealistic image for the family or for selling the house, we do visualisation separately; more on the 3D visualisation page.

The concept and the budget

At the concept stage the floor area, number of storeys, structural scheme and facade complexity are already clear, and the construction budget can be estimated from them. It is not an estimate yet, but it is enough to see whether the house fits the money and, if not, to simplify it before the drawings start. An accurate estimate is prepared from the working design; more on the cost estimates page.

Mistakes the concept catches

The things that most often surface at the concept stage would otherwise be expensive later: the stairs eat half of the first floor, a car cannot turn at the gate, bedroom windows look onto the neighbour's balcony, and the entrance ends up at the level where water runs off the slope. Each such mistake is fixed on paper in a day. On site you either live with it for years or rebuild it in concrete.

How much a concept design costs

A house concept design with layouts, massing, elevations and siting on the plot costs from 3 300 ₾. An extra layout option at the concept stage from 660 ₾. A topographic survey of a plot up to 1 000 m² from 1 020 ₾. An architectural design with plans and elevations from 57 ₾ per m², a house design with a full set of sections from 100 ₾ per m². The final cost is set after discussing the brief and visiting the plot.