Glossary. Architecture, BIM, planning and interior design — in plain terms.

Previously developed land — often ex-industrial — being considered for redevelopment, which typically carries extra due diligence for soil contamination, existing foundations, or utility conflicts that a clean greenfield site doesn't. Feasibility studies on brownfield sites budget time and cost for that investigation upfront rather than discovering it mid-construction.

The boundary set back from the plot edge or road beyond which construction may not project, distinct from the property line itself — effectively the setback made into an enforceable drawn line on the site plan. Balconies and cantilevers are frequently the elements that test whether a design actually respects it.

A local authority's long-term policy document setting land use, infrastructure and growth direction for a city or region, which zoning ordinances are then written to implement. It operates above any single master plan or project — it's the reasoning zoning exists to enforce, not a drawing you design against directly.

Authority approval to use a plot for something not automatically allowed under its base zoning, granted case-by-case with specific conditions attached — a commercial use inside a residential zone, for instance. It's a formal exception process, not a loophole, and it can be refused or revoked if conditions aren't met.

The intensity of development on a given area of land, usually measured as dwelling units or population per hectare — a planning lever authorities use to manage infrastructure load, distinct from FAR, which caps built floor area on an individual plot rather than population across a district.

A legal right for someone other than the landowner to use part of a plot for a specific purpose — a utility company's cable route, a shared access path to a neighbouring property — that restricts what can be built over that portion even though the land is privately owned.

Any part of a structure — a wall, a cantilevered balcony, even a boundary fence — extending past the legal building line, right-of-way, or plot boundary onto land it has no right to occupy. It's one of the most common reasons a completed structure fails final approval, and correcting it after construction is far costlier than catching it at site-plan stage.

An early assessment testing whether a project is realistically viable — checking FAR, zoning, site constraints and rough cost against the client's budget and ambition before real design time is spent. Its job is to say no early and cheaply, if the answer is no, rather than after a full design has already been drawn.

The regional equivalent of FAR used in some jurisdictions' planning regulations — the ratio of permitted built floor area to plot area — governing the same constraint under a different name. Which term a project uses depends entirely on which authority's byelaws apply to that plot.

Undeveloped land with no prior construction or infrastructure, offering a comparatively clean slate for master planning but usually requiring new utility connections and access roads to be brought to the site — costs a brownfield or infill site may already have partly solved.

New construction on a vacant or underused plot within an already built-up, serviced area, rather than expanding onto undeveloped land at a city's edge. It generally has existing utility and road access already in place, but tighter site constraints and closer neighbouring context than a greenfield project.

How a parcel of land is actually being used or is planned to be used — residential, agricultural, institutional — the broader planning category zoning regulates toward. Comprehensive plans work at this level before zoning ordinances translate the intent into enforceable rules for individual plots.

A rough three-dimensional model exploring how much building bulk a site can realistically hold within its FAR, height limit and setbacks, tested before any facade or interior layout work begins. We use it to agree the building's basic envelope with a client before investing design time in details that might not survive it.

The overarching land-use and infrastructure framework for a large site or development — roads, plot subdivisions, green space, utility corridors — set before individual buildings are designed against it. Every subdivision and site plan within a master-planned scheme has to work inside the framework it already committed to.

A single project or site combining residential, commercial and sometimes institutional uses rather than one function alone — often built on a podium base with towers or blocks above. It complicates zoning approval and structural planning both, since each use has different code, parking and servicing requirements stacked on the same plot.

An existing use of a property that was legal when established but no longer complies with current zoning rules — commonly grandfathered in rather than forced to close, but usually restricted from expanding. It matters most on renovation and adaptive-reuse projects, where the existing use may not be reproducible from scratch under today's rules.

An additional set of planning rules layered on top of a base zoning designation — heritage protection, height restriction near an airport, a design-review requirement — that applies only within a defined boundary. A plot can be correctly zoned for what you want to build and still be constrained by an overlay nobody checked for at feasibility stage.

Designing public and shared spaces around how people actually gather and move, rather than treating them as leftover area between buildings — seating, shade, sightlines, and a reason to linger, not just circulation. It's a deliberate design intention within urban design, not something that happens automatically once the buildings are placed.

Demolishing and rebuilding on a site that already has existing structures and established use, as distinct from developing raw greenfield land — carrying its own considerations around existing tenants, demolition permits, and whatever non-conforming use or informal encroachment the original building had accumulated.

The strip of land legally reserved for a road, utility line, or public access, which a private plot's setback and buildable area must respect even where the full width isn't yet built out. Encroaching on it is one of the more common reasons a site plan gets rejected at permit stage.

A drawing showing a building's footprint positioned on its actual plot — setbacks, access roads, parking, existing trees and levels — the first drawing that tests whether a design genuinely fits the specific piece of land it's meant for, not just the brief in the abstract.

A precise, measured record of a plot's actual boundaries, levels, existing structures and utilities — the factual baseline every subsequent drawing, from site plan to structural grid, is set against. Designing from an old or assumed survey instead of a current one is how boundary and level errors get built into a project from day one.

Dividing a larger parcel of land into smaller, independently titled plots, each meeting minimum size and access requirements set by the local authority — the process that turns one master-planned site into the individual plots later sold and built on separately.

The discipline shaping the public realm between buildings — streets, squares, block layout, how a place is actually experienced on foot — sitting above individual building design and below regional master planning. A well-planned master plan can still produce poor urban design if the space between buildings was never actually considered.

The local authority's classification of what a given area of land may legally be used for — residential, commercial, industrial, mixed-use — and often what can be built there. It's checked before feasibility even starts, since a beautifully planned commercial building on a residentially zoned plot is simply not approvable as drawn.