Pick up where you left off.
Course Content
From Brief to Concept
Most project disputes trace back to a brief nobody tested before the concept was drawn.
De-risking project initiation and conceptual design. Test the client brief against planning, code and feasibility and return it for approval, read the site and its context into one constraints and opportunities map, choose and sequence the approval pathway, and shape a concept that is capable of compliance, with a record that protects you and a presentation each audience can follow.
Secure card checkout. Tax invoice emailed.
5 modules with worked cases, final quiz and certificate.
Introduction and objectives
Why concept is a decision stage, not just an exploratory one, and why early decisions cost the least to get right.
The Return Brief: Turning a Client Brief into a Defensible Starting Point
Interrogate the brief, test it against planning, code volume and feasibility, and turn client approval of the return brief into your baseline.
Reading the Site and Country: Site, Cultural and Contextual Analysis
Read the site as the first design act, commission the engagement you cannot do yourself in time, and map constraints and opportunities.
The Planning and Approval Pathway
Read the zone, standards and overlays as one envelope, choose the approval pathway deliberately and sequence every referral.
Concept Design That Is Capable of Compliance
Settle orientation, daylight, acoustics, water and whole life carbon at concept, with consultant advice in before the concept is locked.
Holding the Concept Together: Documenting and Communicating Defensibly
Record why each concept decision was made, and present it to clients, authorities and communities in terms each can follow.
Key takeaways
The concept stage checks that are the cheapest professional protection you can buy.
Final quiz and certificate
Ten project scenarios. Pass and the certificate goes straight into your dashboard.
Intermediate. For architects and registration candidates who carry projects from the first conversation to concept, and it assumes you already work with planning controls, the NCC volumes and consultants. Covers the return brief, site, cultural and contextual analysis, planning controls and approval pathways, building science and whole life carbon at concept, and the concept design record. It teaches no NCC provision in detail, and it is not legal or planning advice for a particular site.
Written for the people who take a project from the first conversation to a concept that holds.
Registered architects
You accept the brief and set the concept, and every later dispute traces back to what you agreed at the start.
Architects seeking registration
Project initiation and conceptual design is a whole unit of the national standard you will be assessed against.
Building designers
You test client expectations against planning controls and the code on every residential and small commercial job.
Urban planners
You assess and advise on concepts and pathways, and see what an untested brief does at lodgement.
Building surveyors
You give early advice on classification, volume and pathway, before a concept that cannot comply reaches you.
Where this hour goes on your record.
National Standard of Competency for Architects (NSCA 2021) performance criteria this course aligns with:
Return brief and areas of deviation
Site, cultural and contextual analysis
Planning requirements applied to site and concept
Environmental sustainability over the lifecycle
Communicating concept proposals to stakeholders
|
If you are |
How it is recorded |
|---|---|
|
An architect |
1 formal CPD point. Aligned with NSCA 2021 performance criteria PC23, PC26, PC32, PC31 and PC34. |
|
An architect seeking registration |
1 hour of CPD on the NSCA 2021 unit Project Initiation and Conceptual Design, recorded on your certificate with the learning outcomes, the module outline and your quiz result. |
|
A building designer, urban planner or building surveyor |
1 hour of CPD on briefing, site analysis, planning pathways and concept design, recorded on your certificate for your professional body, registration body or state scheme. |
CPD On Demand is not a registered training organisation and courses are not accredited by any registration body. Each course is aligned with the relevant competency frameworks and gives you the records to evidence it. CPD rules differ by registration body and state, so check with yours if you are unsure.
Pairs well with.
Contracts & Risk Management for Architects and Designers
The agreement and scope clauses that sit behind an approved return brief.
Designing for Net-Zero Embodied Carbon: Practical Strategies
Module 4’s whole life carbon decisions, taken further.
Ethics for Architects in Practice
The professional duties behind what you promise a client at initiation.
Before you enrol.
Start every project from a tested brief and a concept that can comply, in one self-paced hour.
$99, 60 minutes, certificate on completion.