What shapes the budget on a landed house.

A narrow frontage or a shared driveway changes the plant you can get on site, how material is moved, and therefore the programme.

It is the first thing we look at and the one owners expect least. Two identical houses on the same street can differ by a wide margin on this alone.

Pushes it up

• Shared driveway
• Narrow frontage
• No lay-down space
• Tight turning circle

Pulls it down

• Corner plot
• Direct road frontage
• Room to stage material on site

The cost of a basement is set by the ground more than the drawings: how deep it goes, how close it runs to the boundary, and the soil and groundwater it meets.

Much of it is spent on temporary walls that hold back the neighbouring ground while the hole is open, which is why we want the soil investigated before a design commits to one.

Pushes it up

• High water table
• Soft or variable soil
• A full-footprint basement
• Excavation close to a neighbour's foundations

Pulls it down

• Firm ground
• Room to set back from the boundary
• A partial basement sized to what it actually holds

Long spans, cantilevers and column-free rooms need deeper beams and more steel, and the foundations follow whatever the soil allows.

The opening that looks effortless in a render is usually where the structure is working hardest.

Pushes it up

• Deep cantilevers
• Column-free spans
• Transfer beams
• Piled foundations on poor ground

Pulls it down

• A regular column grid
• Spans that suit the room sizes
• Walls and columns that stack from floor to floor

The walls, roof and glass that keep the weather out. How much glazing there is and the system it sits in move this more than the finish on the surface.

In Singapore's sun and rain, a saving here tends to come back later as leaks and heat.

Pushes it up

• Floor-to-ceiling glazing
• Large sliding systems
• A complex roof form
• Bespoke cladding

Pulls it down

• Glazing placed where it earns its light and view
• Carefully considered facade design
• A simple roof

Everything chosen once the house stands: stone, timber, sanitaryware, lighting, joinery and the systems behind the walls. It is the driver owners control most directly.

It is also the one that drifts most when choices are left open. A lift or a pool counts too, and each brings structure and services with it.

Pushes it up

• Individually sourcing from your own suppliers
• Bespoke joinery throughout
• A lift or pool added late
• Choices left open into construction

Pulls it down

• A finishes schedule fixed before construction
• Carpentry designed as a system
• Allowances set early and held
• Collective purchase from our selected suppliers

The approvals a house needs before work starts — planning, building plan and structural — and any other agency the plot concerns. Which apply depends on the work and the site.

The fees are rarely what matters. The time is: every resubmission holds the programme, and a longer programme costs more to run.

Pushes it up

• Trees or a conservation constraint
• A road or drainage reserve on the plot
• A design at the edge of the planning controls
• Resubmissions

Pulls it down

• A scheme drawn inside the controls from the start
• A plot with no reserves
• Drawings coordinated before submission
• Working with an experienced consultant