Space Planning and Interior Design
How should people move through the space, spend time together, find privacy or make room for something new? We develop layouts and interiors around those everyday relationships, alongside the character you want the place to have.
Our work spans homes and vacation rentals, workplaces, retail and showrooms, hospitality, restaurants and exhibition spaces. A focused kitchen, bathroom or room can be a complete starting point. We bring your knowledge of the place into the design, compare possibilities and explain how the arrangement supports the people using it.
Renovations, Additions and New Construction
An existing building may need a more useful arrangement, additional space or a different relationship to its surroundings. A new building or accessory dwelling unit—ADU—brings another set of possibilities. We help shape the direction around the people, property and purpose, including what is worth retaining.
A request to open up two rooms also raises questions about their use, privacy, light and the building itself. We develop those spatial decisions with the relevant architects, engineers and trades, connecting the intended experience with the structure, building services, budget and sequence of work.
Our guide can help you compare improving, renovating, or moving based on what the place needs to support and what each option would involve.
Selected work
Wayne Avenue
Reworking space for guests
An initial request to turn existing space into a guest room became a focused bedroom-and-bathroom renovation. Abstraction Creative developed the architectural design and permit set, considering the rooms and storage together within the existing house.
A larger bathroom emerged through the design work, supporting the aim of more spacious, inclusive guest accommodation. Existing, demolition and proposed drawings carry the arrangement into coordinated documentation. The project is under construction.
Furniture, Materials and Lighting
A familiar object can anchor a room. A change in scale, texture or light can give it a different character. We connect that expression with precise choices about dimensions, placement, comfort, movement and care, so the pieces contribute to the whole.
This work includes furniture, fixtures and equipment—FF&E—selection and specification, materials and finishes, custom cabinetry and millwork, and lighting design and coordination. Acoustic design and coordination can address how sound affects the space. Our trade relationships support sourcing and procurement within the agreed engagement, with availability, alternatives and purchasing arrangements made clear.
Exterior and Landscape Design
Arrival, outdoor activity and the transition between inside and outside are part of the same experience. We consider the building’s outward character alongside entrances, materials, planting, paths and places to spend time.
The design develops around how the setting will be used and cared for, with attention to its relationship to the building and surroundings. We bring the relevant specialists into site, building and landscape questions as the scope requires.
Design Development and 3D Visualization
Predesign helps us understand the brief, existing conditions and questions worth exploring. Schematic design gives possible arrangements a form we can discuss. Design development carries the chosen direction into more considered relationships and details.
Plans, sketches, samples, 3D models and rendered views answer different questions. We use them to compare possibilities and help you understand what has been decided and what still needs attention. Your observations can change the direction as the work becomes clearer.
Discover → Define → Explore → Design / Develop / Market → Learn → Advance → Discover. Our shared process adapts to the work and the contributions it needs.
Documentation and Project Coordination
Plans, elevations, details, schedules and specifications make the design useful to the people developing, pricing, supplying and realizing it. We organize that information for the relevant stage and keep decisions and revisions understandable.
Engineering consulting and specialist coordination bring the appropriate architects, engineers, trades and other collaborators into the work. We can assemble a team or work alongside yours, with each contribution and decision responsibility clear. Permit coordination can form part of the engagement, with the required submissions and professional approvals addressed by the relevant people.
As work proceeds, we help examine substitutions and questions in the context of the design. Procurement, installation or construction support, and completion and handover are agreed around the project, including who provides the information, who acts on it and which decisions need your approval.
See Via Solano’s room-by-room bid sets for an example of the information contractors can use to price and sequence the work.
Sustainable Design and Post-Occupancy Evaluation
Retention, reuse, durability, repair and adaptability can shape the direction from the beginning. We help weigh materials, furnishings and changes around their useful life, the people using them and the practical conditions of the project. Where environmental assessment or certification is involved, the specialist contribution and responsibilities are agreed as part of the work.
A place continues to reveal things through use. Post-occupancy evaluation brings feedback, observation and agreed evidence into a review of how it is working. We can develop recommendations for a focused adjustment, a later phase or a decision to preserve what is already serving people well.
Tell us about the place you have in mind.
Bring what you value, what you hope will change and what remains uncertain. Whether the need begins with a room, a building or an outdoor setting, we can help you explore a useful direction.