Every project in this studio begins the same way: somebody walks the site, in the weather, without a sketchbook. The drawings come later, and they are better for it.
A site cannot be read from the survey. The survey tells you the levels; the walk tells you the wind, the neighbours, the light at the hour you will actually use the room, and the tree that the survey lists as an obstacle but the street lists as a landmark.
The habit costs a day and saves months. It has also, on three separate occasions, changed the entire design — because the thing the client most wanted was visible from the ground and invisible on the drawing.