Design Clarity from Day One. A Home That Feels Unmistakably Yours.

Calm, supportive guidance. Inspired design. Confidence in every decision.

Your Design Journey — Creating a Home That Feels Truly Yours

Designing a home should feel exciting—not overwhelming. If you're like most families we work with, you're looking for a space that goes beyond surface-level luxury. You want clarity, comfort, and confidence that every decision you're making is the right one—not just for now, but for decades to come.

At Borland Architecture, we guide you through a thoughtful process built around your needs, your lifestyle, and your future. It’s simple, calm, and designed to make the complex feel refreshingly clear.

A Simpler, Smarter Way to Design Your Home

Designing your dream home shouldn't mean losing sleep over budgets, timelines, or unexpected compromises. That’s why we do things differently. Our three-phase process removes the chaos and restores clarity:

1. Concept Design

A low-risk, high-impact phase where we test your brief, budget, and site potential.
Includes early involvement with 2–3 potential builders through ECI (Early Contractor Involvement).
Lets you experience our process before committing further.
Features our signature deep-dive briefing session—we ask the right questions to understand not just how you want to live, but how you hope to feel. It’s a process that lets us act like “method actors,” stepping into your future life so your home aligns perfectly with who you are and where you’re going.

2. Schematic Design & Design Development

Spatial layout, solar orientation, early structure, and visual language come together.
Design and pricing evolve in parallel with builder feedback to avoid misalignment.
Town planning documentation prepared and coordinated where required.

3. Documentation & Delivery

Detailed construction documentation ensures your home performs as promised.
Builder collaboration continues through every milestone, avoiding costly surprises.
We tailor our site involvement to suit your confidence and availability—from milestone check-ins to full oversight.

Our process includes interior architecture and design as a seamless part of your home—not a bolt-on. Whether we handle all interiors or collaborate with your stylist, the result is cohesive and personal.

Throughout, you’ll explore your home through immersive 3D walk-throughs. Clients are often amazed by how realistic it feels—materials, lighting, seasons, even layout alternatives. We coordinate every junction, service, and system before construction begins, so the build delivers exactly what you imagined.

We also stay in touch post-handover. If something doesn’t feel right or needs fine-tuning, we’re here to help. Our commitment doesn’t end at the keys—it continues for as long as you live in your home.

“I’d never built a house from scratch before. Working with someone I felt was more experienced than me in different homes has certainly given me confidence. I’m excited about the approach going forward.”

— Virginia Smith

Most Architects Stop at Aesthetics. We Go Further.

We don’t just decorate houses—we craft homes that enhance your daily life.

Every home we design is guided by six fundamentals:

Timeless Aesthetic: Designs that transcend trends and grow more beautiful with age.
Functional Simplicity: Spaces that simplify life, not clutter it.
Health & Wellbeing: Clean air, natural light, and environments that restore.
Appropriate Performance: Comfort all year round, with less energy and lower bills.
Self-Sufficiency: Smarter, resilient homes that use less and give more.
Legacy: Long-term thinking baked into every detail—from adaptability to resale value.

“Roger’s designs are different from the norm—practical, beautiful, and unique. He interpreted my ideas and turned them into something amazing.”

— Karlie Bombardier

Comfort Without Compromise: Passive Principles Built In

Many of the homes we design follow Passive House principles—the gold standard for performance, efficiency, and wellbeing. You won’t see them as add-ons or expensive upgrades. We simply integrate them where they matter most:

Airtight, well-insulated envelopes for thermal stability
High-performance glazing to reduce heat loss and gain
Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (HRV) for clean, filtered air
Smart solar orientation and shading

These principles allow your home to run quietly in the background, giving you comfort and confidence—without needing to constantly manage it.

Designed in Partnership with Your Builder—From Day One

We don’t wait until the last minute to get builder input. From the start, we work with 2–3 highly aligned builders to:

Provide real-time pricing, feasibility, and construction advice
Build strong trust and communication early on
Eliminate the cost surprises, redesigns, and tension of traditional tender processes

We refine to your preferred builder before detailed documentation begins, keeping the entire project efficient, linear, and aligned.

Where appropriate, we also embrace prefabricated or factory-formed construction, which improves build quality, timeframes, and environmental control. It’s a smarter, future-focused way to ensure your home lives up to the design.

Which Path Sounds Like You?

“We’ve never done this before and want a calm, supportive process.”

We guide you step-by-step, explaining what matters and removing what doesn’t. You’ll always know what’s coming next.

“We’ve been burnt by other architects or builders and want to avoid repeating that.”

Our ECI approach and as-built quality assurance means the design you fall in love with is the one you’ll get.

“We already have a builder in mind but want the right architect.”

Great. We’re collaborative by nature, and happy to engage your trusted builder early.

“We want a high-end home but don’t want to overbuild or overspend.”

Our fundamentals help us design what’s truly valuable—comfort, beauty, and performance—without wasting space or budget.

“We’d looked at several architects, but we chose Borland because Roger felt more genuine. He came back to us thoughtfully, and made us feel listened to.”

— Virginia Smith

What Clients Say After Living in Their Home

You won’t need to chase us. You won’t wonder what’s happening. And you’ll never be left in the dark.

From day one to handover—and beyond—we build deep trust through:

Clear, proactive communication
A streamlined, personalised design process
An immersive briefing process driven by empathy, not ego
Rigorous, best-practice documentation
Close collaboration with builders who value quality, not shortcuts
Post-handover reviews and check-ins to ensure everything continues to meet expectations

Our clients often tell us that their home “feels like it was built for them.” That’s because it was.

“Roger has always made time to discuss direction of design and is very responsive via face to face, phone and email.”

— Tony Kelava

“Every builder who has been part of the process has commended us on the quality and accuracy of the drawings.”

— Trish Hili

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How much does it cost to get started?
We begin with a fixed-fee Concept Design phase at $2,500 + GST, which includes builder involvement, a clear feasibility review, and alignment of your brief, site, and budget. After this phase, we can provide a tailored fee proposal for the full design process—typically ranging between 8–12% of the construction value up to the start of construction.

2. How long does the full design process take?
The design process usually takes around 9 months, excluding any time spent in town planning. Town planning is often the greatest unknown in terms of timeframes and is not something we can directly control.

3. Will I need to make a lot of decisions?
Yes—but we’re here to make it simple and enjoyable. We break everything into bite-sized stages, guide you through each decision, and ensure you never feel rushed. If needed, we slow the process down or adjust our approach to suit your pace and comfort level.

4. What if I need to pause the process?
If life changes or timing becomes an issue, we can pause the process and resume later. While this flexibility is built into our approach, longer delays may require a revised fee to reflect potential inflation or market shifts.

5. Does building sustainably cost more?
Not with the right priorities. We focus on quality of life over quantity of space, which allows us to design smart, sustainable homes without overbuilding. Sustainability isn’t an “extra”—it’s baked into our process from day one, making it simpler and more cost-effective to achieve long-term performance.

6. I don’t know exactly what I want—will that be a problem?
Not at all. Most of our clients come to us unsure. Our immersive briefing process helps you uncover what really matters, even if you haven’t fully articulated it yet. We listen deeply, ask the right questions, and collaborate with you to shape a design that truly reflects your needs—not our ego.