What a concept design actually contains

A concept design is not a pretty picture. It is the first verifiable version of your intent.

When a client first hears "concept design", they often imagine a render. A render can be part of the deliverable, but it is not the point.

A concept design is the first verifiable version of the building. It contains the site layout on the plot, floor plans of all levels, characteristic sections and elevations, and a written description that explains the logic: use, areas, relationships to neighbours and to the spatial plan's rules.

Why does this matter? Because this is the level where the most expensive decisions are made: position on the plot, volume, number of storeys, organisation of space. Changing a floor plan at concept stage means erasing a line. Changing it in the main project means redoing other people's calculations. Changing it on site means demolition.

A good concept has one more property: it is consistent with what the plot analysis said is possible. A concept that ignores constraints is not bold, it is expensive.

What a concept design is not: it is not permit documentation, not a cost estimate, and not a construction promise. Its job is to make the intent verifiable, so you can decide about it, and so the next service has a firm input.

If someone offers you a "concept" without floor plans, sections, and a relationship to the plan's rules, you have received an illustration. An illustration passes neither with a bank nor with an authority.