Family houses in BIM Harness: how to write the brief.

A good brief is one concrete sentence

Family houses are built by the family-house kit: it reads the storeys, the layout, the roof and the style from your brief and builds the whole IFC model, stairs, bathrooms and MEP included. The more of the following the sentence holds, the less it has to guess.

• Storeys

  One to four storeys above ground: a bungalow or a two-storey house; a habitable attic over two storeys.

  “single-storey”, “2 storeys”, “two storeys with a habitable attic”

• Layout

  The Czech way of counting rooms works best: “4+kk” is four rooms with the kitchen in the living room, “4+1” a separate kitchen. The kit lays out the rooms itself.

  “3+kk”, “4+1”, “5+kk”

• Plan shape

  A rectangle or an L-shaped house (two storeys, one flat roof over both wings). If a larger layout does not fit, the kit asks whether to add a storey or grow the plan.

  “L-shaped house”

• Roof

  On a house of two or more storeys: gable, hip, flat, shed, mansard, butterfly, saltbox and gambrel - and the pitch in degrees, when you give it. A single-storey house takes a gable, hip, mansard or flat roof for now.

  “gable roof 40°”, “shed roof”

• Garage and terrace

  An attached single-storey garage with a door into the house. A terrace at the living room on the side you name, stone or timber, with a pergola if you like.

  “garage”, “covered terrace to the south”

• Style and facade

  A style card (Scandinavian, functionalist, modern and more) sets the windows, materials and roofing. On top: facade colour and material, timber-clad upper floor, window frames, roofing and overhang.

  “white render and timber cladding”, “dark window frames”

What it does not do yet

Said plainly, so you never pay for a turn that cannot work.

• A sketch or drawing as the plan

  It does not take the layout from an image, a sketch or a PDF drawing yet. Describe it in words.

• Slopes and basements

  The house stands on level ground. A sloping plot, a half-sunk storey or a basement are not built yet.

• Several buildings, terraced houses

  One house on the plot. Terraced houses, several separate buildings at once or a two-generation house with different homes per floor - not yet.

• Windows and entrance on a given side

  The kit places windows and the entrance by the layout. “Big windows to the garden” or “entrance from the north” cannot be set precisely yet.

• Detailed interiors

  Rooms, doors, stairs, bathrooms and MEP - yes. Specific furniture, a kitchen design or tiles to your wish - no.

• Pool, sauna, PV, underfloor heating

  Wishes the kit has no option for are never dropped silently: before building it asks whether to go ahead without them.

Four tips

1. 1One sentence, concrete numbers: storeys, layout, roof. Adjectives like “beautiful” or “cosy” are not read.
2. 2Name the style (“Scandinavian”, “functionalist villa”) - the wizard picks the architecture card for you, and you can change it.
3. 3Say what you do not want, too (“no garage”, “everything on the ground floor”).
4. 4Refine with further sentences: “make the roof flat”, “one more storey”, “add a garage”. Each change is another turn with its own price.