Workshops

Learn to think like an architect.

Attend a weeklong or weekend workshop and watch your dreams become reality. Work side-by-side with an expert, as you develop plans. Scroll down to find a workshop that suits your needs.

Why you should attend a workshop.

You have a creative sense of what your new home should be. Over time, you've developed a significant and important base of knowledge about your lifestyle, your aesthetic taste, and your financial capabilities.

Our HomeDesignResource.com workshops help you tap into this fundamental knowledge, to stretch and challenge it through exposure to new ideas, to validate it as your own, and ultimately to teach you how to use it in the design of your home. Along the way, you’ll take part in a number of simple and fun tasks in a step-by-step, hands-on, creative design process.

The workshops grew out of a method that I developed from more than 25 years of working with many different types of clients in my architecture practice. One thing all those clients had in common was difficulty in visualizing a three-dimensional space by looking at a drawing of it.

So I began using rough models in my early design presentations, often with options that could be manipulated by my clients. I quickly realized that this approach gave my clients a much better understanding of the evolving design issues and the ramifications of design solutions. It empowered them to become stronger collaborators in the design process.

I want to teach this approach to you. It’s actually easier, more creative, and lots more fun than drawing and redrawing floor plans. For an in-depth description of the workshops, download our free article, Designing Together.

Getting Ready to Design: Understanding Your Budget and Modeling Your Program (June 21 - 22, 2007) – $475.00

How much house do you need? How much can you afford? This two-day workshop will give you the tools you need to turn your dreams into reality. It will focus on two pre-design areas: programming and budget.

The Getting Ready to Design Workshop lasts from 9:00 am on Saturday until 4:00 PM on Sunday. Up to two people per project team can attend. The maximum number of projects is six; the minimum is two. The workshop is held at the Newcastle, Maine, studio of Richard Burt Architects.

The total cost is $950 per project team. All workshop materials are included in the tuition, and a free preparatory conference call is included. To register, pay $475 today; you will be billed for the remaining amount, which is payable 30 days before the workshop begins. Registration fees are refundable, except for a 10% handling charge.

First Steps to Creative Design -- Modeling Your Building Site (September 15 - 16, 2007) – $475.00

The critical first step in any successful and creative house design process is to fully understand your building site. You've bought a piece of land and are now starting to think about where to place your house. This workshop will help you understand your bulding site. What are its assets? What are its constraints? We'll help you examine your site through a variety of lenses to determine how to maximize its benefits. This workshop starts with a conference call a month in advance, to help you prepare the necessary information that you'll bring to the workshop. During the workshop, you'll work in our studio to build a model of the site that incorporates its natural features, gathering and absorbing essential information about its uniqueness, which will begin to fully inform your creative design process. you've begun the house design process.

The First Steps to Creative Design -- Modeling Your Bulding Site workshop runs from 9:00 am on Saturday until 4:00 PM on Sunday. Up to two people per project team can attend. The maximum number of projects is four; the minimum is two. The workshop is held at the Newcastle, Maine, studio of Richard Burt Architects.

Home Design Workshop (Oct. 8 - 12, 2007) – $475.00

The week-long Home Design Workshop is our most inclusive and complete workshop. All types of construction are welcome. No more than four projects are admitted per workshop, ensuring that each project team gets many hours of one-on-one attention from Rick.

The Home Design Workshop begins at 9:00 am on Monday and ends at 5:00 PM on the following Friday. The workshop daily schedule runs from 9:00 am - 12:00 noon and from 1:00 - 5:00 PM. There are often optional lunchtime and evening activities. The workshop is held at the Newcastle, Maine, studio of Richard Burt Architects.

To learn more about this workshop, see our free informational download.

Two people per project team can attend the workshop. The maximum number of projects per workshop is four; the minimum is two.

The tuition for each project team is $1975, plus a $40 fee for materials, for a total of $2,015. To register, pay $475 today; you will be billed for the remaining amount, which is payable 30 days before the workshop begins. Registration fees are refundable, except for a 10% handling charge.

Renovations & Additions Workshop (November 5 - 9, 2007) – $475.00

The Renovations and Additions Workshop mirrors the week-long Home Design Workshop, but focuses on the special problems and issues that face the homeowner who has a major project in mind. Participants should be prepared to closely examine all use of existing space as well as think creatively about how to change or expand that space. Modeling etc....

This workshop lasts from 9:00 am on Monday until 5:00 on Friday. The workshop daily schedule runs from 9:00 am - 12:00 noon and from 1:00 - 5:00 PM. There are often optional lunchtime and evening activities. The workshop is held at the Newcastle, Maine, studio of Richard Burt Architects.

Two people per project team can attend the workshop. The maximum number of projects per workshop is four; the minimum is two.