Pre-Concept Design
The Foundation of ProjectSuccess
Date
Apr 18, 2025
Reading Time
10 Minutes
Architecture begins long before the first sketch. The Pre-Concept Design phase—often undervalued and misunderstood—establishes the foundation upon which all subsequent design decisions stand. At Solid Void, we've found that excellence in this initial phase correlates directly with project success rates, client satisfaction, and profitability.
This first step in the American Institute of Architects' six-phase design process demands rigorous investigation, stakeholder alignment, and strategic thinking. When executed properly, Pre-Concept Design transforms abstract needs into actionable frameworks that guide the entire project lifecycle.
What Is Pre-Concept Design?
Pre-Concept Design precedes traditional conceptual design. It's the investigative phase where architects and clients collaborate to define fundamental project parameters before any substantial design work begins. This phase involves:
Identifying stakeholders and their needs
Establishing project goals and success metrics
Analyzing site conditions and regulatory constraints
Developing preliminary budgets and schedules
Assessing sustainability opportunities and challenges
Creating a programming brief that will guide conceptual design
While later design phases focus on solutions, Pre-Concept Design focuses on understanding the problem completely. It creates the project's DNA—establishing values, constraints, and opportunities that will guide all downstream decisions.
Why Pre-Concept Design Matters
Risk Mitigation
The architectural adage "measure twice, cut once" applies perfectly to Pre-Concept Design. Our analysis of over 200 Solid Void projects revealed that projects with robust Pre-Concept phases experienced 64% fewer major scope changes and 47% fewer budget overruns than those that rushed this critical stage.
Consider our Westlake Corporate Campus project. The client initially requested a standard office building with traditional programming. Through Pre-Concept investigation—including employee surveys, workplace trend analysis, and deep operational interviews—we discovered their true needs involved a hybrid model supporting remote work patterns with flexible collaboration spaces. This fundamental redirection during Pre-Concept Design saved millions in potential redesign costs and delivered a facility that supported their actual work patterns.
Client Relationship Foundation
Pre-Concept Design establishes the client-architect relationship framework. By demonstrating thoroughness, critical thinking, and strategic value during this phase, architects position themselves as trusted advisors rather than service providers.
This phase creates shared vocabulary, expectations, and goals. It transforms subjective preferences ("I want it to feel modern") into objective criteria ("spaces will prioritize natural light with minimal visual barriers between indoor and outdoor environments").
Financial Clarity
Pre-Concept Design creates the financial roadmap. At Solid Void, we've developed a proprietary Cost Mapping Protocol that aligns programmatic requirements with budget realities during this phase.
This early financial clarity helps clients make informed decisions about project scope, quality, and timelines. For the Portland Arts Center renovation, our Pre-Concept financial analysis identified that their $12M budget could not accommodate their complete wishlist. Rather than proceeding with unrealistic expectations, we helped prioritize project elements, identified potential phasing strategies, and suggested alternative approaches that protected the project's core mission while respecting financial constraints.
Key Components of Pre-Concept Design
Stakeholder Identification and Engagement
Pre-Concept Design begins with a comprehensive stakeholder map. Beyond obvious participants (clients, end-users, facilities teams), effective Pre-Concept Design identifies all parties with interest in the project outcome:
Management and leadership teams
Maintenance and operations staff
Community members and neighbors
Regulatory authorities
Financial stakeholders
Marketing and branding teams
For Mason Regional Hospital's outpatient pavilion, our stakeholder analysis identified that environmental services staff—typically overlooked in healthcare design—had critical insights about operational inefficiencies. Their input fundamentally reshaped circulation patterns, reducing daily staff travel distance by over 30% and improving building maintainability.
Effective stakeholder engagement during Pre-Concept Design requires:
Structured interviews and workshops
Cross-functional collaboration sessions
Site observation and shadowing
Documentation of competing priorities and needs
Clear communication of constraints and opportunities
Site Analysis and Context Evaluation
Pre-Concept Design demands thorough site investigation, even for interior renovations. This analysis typically includes:
Zoning and code review
Physical constraints assessment
Environmental considerations
Historical and cultural context
Infrastructure and utilities evaluation
Community context and neighborhood character
For the Riverton Mixed-Use Development, our Pre-Concept site analysis revealed that while zoning permitted a 12-story structure, soil conditions would require extraordinarily expensive foundations at that height. By identifying this issue early, we adjusted the program to an 8-story scheme with expanded footprint, saving the client $4.2M in foundation costs while maintaining programmatic requirements.
Site analysis during Pre-Concept should also address temporal factors—how the site changes throughout the day, seasons, and years. For the Oceanside Senior Living Center, our temporal analysis revealed late afternoon sun exposure issues that would have created uncomfortable conditions in primary community spaces. This early insight allowed us to reorient the building before any substantial design investment.
Program Development
The architectural program—the detailed description of spaces, their functions, relationships, and requirements—emerges during Pre-Concept Design. Effective programming requires:
Quantitative analysis (square footages, occupancies, code requirements)
Qualitative assessment (desired experiences, emotional impacts, brand alignment)
Adjacency and relationship mapping
Technical and specialized requirements documentation
Growth and flexibility planning
For the Hillcrest Elementary School renovation, our programming process included classroom observations, teacher interviews, and educational trend research. This revealed that traditional classroom spaces were inadequate for contemporary teaching methodologies. The resulting program introduced "learning neighborhoods" with flexible boundaries between spaces, supporting team teaching and project-based learning approaches that the initial brief hadn't contemplated.
Financial Framework Development
Pre-Concept Design establishes the project's financial foundation through:
Budget development and validation
Cost modeling and benchmarking
Value engineering opportunity identification
Life-cycle cost analysis
Phasing and prioritization strategies
The Smithfield Public Library project illustrates the value of robust financial framework development. Initial client expectations included a 45,000 SF facility with comprehensive community resources. Our Pre-Concept financial analysis demonstrated this exceeded available funding by approximately 30%. Rather than simply reducing square footage, we worked with stakeholders to identify core vs. peripheral services, explored partnership opportunities with nearby community organizations, and developed a phased implementation strategy. This approach maintained the project's ambition while creating a realistic financial roadmap.
Initial Technical Assessment
While detailed technical design occurs in later phases, Pre-Concept Design should identify major technical considerations that could impact project feasibility:
Structural system possibilities and limitations
MEP infrastructure requirements and constraints
Sustainability approaches and certification pathways
Material strategy considerations
Technology and security needs
Accessibility requirements
For the renovation of the historic Glendale Theater, our Pre-Concept technical assessment identified that the existing structural system could not support contemporary theatrical rigging requirements. This early discovery allowed us to develop alternative technical approaches before investing in design concepts that would have proven infeasible.
Common Pre-Concept Design Mistakes
Rushing the Process
Under pressure to show design progress, many architects abbreviate Pre-Concept Design. This false economy typically results in conceptual designs based on incomplete information, leading to costly redesigns later.
When renovating the Westfield Corporate Headquarters, a competitor had previously abandoned the project after multiple failed design attempts. When Solid Void assumed responsibility, we insisted on a proper Pre-Concept Design phase despite client impatience. This investigation revealed unresolved internal disagreements about the company's workplace strategy. By facilitating these discussions before design began, we created alignment that had previously been impossible.
Confirmation Bias
Architects sometimes use Pre-Concept Design to justify preconceived solutions rather than genuinely investigating needs. This approach undermines the phase's value and can lead to inappropriate designs.
To counter this tendency, Solid Void employs a "challenge protocol" where team members are assigned to critique assumptions and propose alternative approaches. This structured skepticism has repeatedly uncovered critical insights that shaped our designs.
Failing to Document Effectively
Pre-Concept Design generates substantial information that must be organized for ongoing reference. Inadequate documentation limits this phase's value and creates risk of important insights being lost.
Effective documentation includes:
Programming requirements with clear priorities
Decision logs capturing key determinations and rationales
Constraint maps identifying limitations and opportunities
Stakeholder input summaries with clear attribution
Our Pre-Concept Documentation Framework ensures this critical information remains accessible throughout the project lifecycle, supporting consistent decision-making as the design evolves.
Pre-Concept Design Methodologies
Immersive Research
Beyond traditional programming interviews, immersive research involves directly experiencing current conditions. For the Crosswinds International Airport terminal expansion, our team spent three 24-hour cycles in the existing facility, observing passenger flows, operational patterns, and pain points across different schedules and conditions. This firsthand knowledge revealed circulation issues that statistical analysis had missed.
Future Scenario Planning
Pre-Concept Design should consider not only current needs but future possibilities. Using structured scenario planning techniques, architects can help clients prepare for alternative futures.
For the Lakeside Community College Science Center, we developed three potential scenarios for educational technology evolution and created a flexible framework that could adapt as pedagogical approaches evolved. Five years after completion, when immersive visualization became standard in chemistry education, the facility accommodated this shift without significant renovation thanks to the scenario planning integrated into the Pre-Concept phase.
Systems Thinking
Complex projects require understanding interconnected systems. For healthcare facilities, municipal buildings, and educational institutions, we employ systems mapping techniques during Pre-Concept Design to visualize operational flows, identify bottlenecks, and optimize relationships.
The Garfield Medical Center emergency department renovation demonstrates this approach's value. By mapping patient journeys, staff workflows, and material movement systems, we identified non-obvious inefficiencies in the existing layout. The resulting design reduced average treatment time by 24 minutes per patient through operational improvements identified during Pre-Concept systems analysis.
Case Study: Transformation Through Pre-Concept Design
The Franklin Institute Renovation
The Franklin Institute's aging science center faced declining attendance and operational challenges. Initial client discussions focused on exhibition space updates and cosmetic improvements. During Pre-Concept Design, our team conducted:
Visitor journey mapping
Competitive analysis of science centers nationally
Educational programming trends analysis
Staff operational interviews
Financial sustainability modeling
This investigation revealed that the fundamental challenge wasn't the exhibition content but rather the visitor circulation pattern and entry experience. The imposing classical façade created psychological barriers for families with young children—the core audience—while internal wayfinding issues discouraged exploration.
Our Pre-Concept report shifted the project focus from exhibition updates to entry reconfiguration and circulation improvement. This strategic redirection increased project impact while reducing overall budget requirements. Post-completion visitor surveys showed a 47% improvement in visitor satisfaction and 28% increase in attendance—outcomes that would have been impossible without the insights generated during Pre-Concept Design.
Conclusion
Pre-Concept Design establishes the foundation for architectural success. It transforms abstract needs into structured frameworks that guide all subsequent design decisions. While often overshadowed by more visually engaging design phases, Pre-Concept work determines whether a project will meet its fundamental objectives.
At Solid Void, we've seen repeatedly that time invested in rigorous Pre-Concept Design yields exponential returns throughout the project lifecycle. By thoroughly understanding problems before proposing solutions, architects deliver greater value, reduce risk, and create buildings that truly serve their intended purposes.
As you move through the AIA's six design phases, remember that excellence in later stages depends fundamentally on the groundwork laid during Pre-Concept Design. This foundation—invisible in the final building but essential to its success—represents architecture at its most strategic and valuable.