Services · Design
Design for renovations and new civil buildings in Abruzzo
The drawings, the technical report and the priced bill of quantities that let you obtain an Italian building permit, compare builders on identical quantities and build what you actually decided.
The engagement
What a design appointment covers, and what you end up holding
Ivan Nozzi is an Ingegnere, an Italian state-qualified civil engineer, registered with the Ordine degli Ingegneri della Provincia di Chieti under no. 2489, Section A, civil and environmental sector. He designs renovations of existing houses and new civil buildings in Abruzzo. What you end up holding is a document set: dimensioned drawings, a technical report (relazione tecnica), a priced bill of quantities (computo metrico estimativo) and a written specification (capitolato).
Building in Italy is not organised the way it is in Britain, Ireland or the United States, and the difference lands on your budget. No authority reviews the design for you in the sense a foreign buyer expects; the comune checks compliance with its own building regulations and zoning rules, and a builder handed a sketch instead of a measured drawing will price the gaps in their own favour. Removing those gaps before anyone quotes is the work. I practise on my own, so the person who measures the building is the person who signs the drawings.
Where a building carries a vincolo, meaning protection under the Italian heritage and landscape code, the design lead is reserved by law to an architect. In those cases I work alongside the architect rather than in their place, taking the structure, the energy behaviour of the building envelope and planning and cadastral compliance, under a written split that states who signs what.
Sequence
The six design stages and the document each one produces
The design runs in six stages, and each stage ends with a document you can read, keep and put in front of a builder or a second opinion.
Site visit and measured survey
I measure the property on site and draw the existing state in plan, elevation and section. Everything downstream rests on this: a price built on an estate agent's floor plan is a guess with a decimal point.
Feasibility and constraints check
I read the comune's building regulations, the zoning rules applying to the plot and any constraint registered against it, from landscape protection to hydrogeological restriction to boundary distances. You receive a written note on what is permitted, what is not, and which further consents are required.
Preliminary design with alternatives
I set two or three workable layouts side by side, each with an order-of-magnitude cost. This is the stage at which changing your mind is cheap, and it is the stage most people skip.
Permit design (progetto definitivo)
I develop the chosen option to the level the comune requires: dimensioned drawings, the technical report and the sworn statements that accompany a CILA, a SCIA or a permesso di costruire, the three Italian routes to a building title.
Construction design and details
I draw the junctions, the build-ups, the setting-out dimensions and the coordination between trades. This is the level at which a builder constructs what was agreed rather than what is convenient on the day.
Bill of quantities and specification
I measure every item of work and price it against a published regional schedule of rates; the specification fixes materials, finishes and workmanship. These two documents are what a construction contract is written on.
Contents
What the drawing set actually contains
The design package is made up of separate documents, each with a job to do. This is what is inside it.
- Floor plans
- Every level of the building with dimensions, wall thicknesses, clear heights and the use of each room. These are the drawings a builder sets out from.
- Elevations
- The facades seen from outside, with openings, materials and proposed colours. This is what the comune looks at when judging how the work sits in its surroundings.
- Sections
- Vertical cuts through the building showing floor levels, internal heights, slabs and roof. They are how minimum-height and daylight-and-ventilation requirements are demonstrated.
- Construction details
- Close-scale drawings of the junctions that decide whether the work succeeds: ground floor to wall, slab bearing, window reveal, eaves. This is the difference between a design that is drawn and a design that can be built.
- Services coordination drawings
- Routes and space allowances for plumbing, electrical and heating installations, to the extent needed to coordinate them with structure, build-ups and finishes. Specialist sizing and the declaration of conformity remain with the licensed installer.
- Technical report
- The text setting out the existing state, the proposed work, the standards applied and the technical choices made. It is what another professional reads to understand the project without asking you anything.
- Priced bill of quantities
- The measured list of works, item by item, with quantities and reference unit rates. It is the basis on which comparable quotations are requested.
Your call
The decisions that are yours, and when each one has to be fixed
Projects stall on postponed decisions, not on missing drawings. These are the six I ask you to settle before drawing begins, with the point in the sequence at which each has to be final.
- Your ceiling, not your hope. I need the figure above which you would walk away, because the preliminary design is built around that limit instead of discovering it at the end.
- Which layout priority wins. If an extra bedroom and a larger living room cannot both fit, say now which one gives way. After the permit drawings are filed, changing it means filing again.
- The level of finish. The same design can cost wildly different amounts depending on floors, windows and bathroom fittings. Give me a bracket, however rough, before the bill of quantities is priced.
- Whether you will live in the property while the work runs. It changes the sequence of trades, the protection of finished areas and the total duration. An empty house usually shortens the programme.
- The heating and cooling strategy. Heat pump or condensing boiler, underfloor or radiators: the choice fixes screed thicknesses, finished floor levels and where the outdoor unit stands, so it belongs before the construction drawings.
- Any real deadline. A move-in date, a tenancy ending, or a limit on how often you can travel to Italy sets the order in which applications are filed and sometimes the choice of permit route itself.
Why it matters
The bill of quantities changes the negotiation with builders
A computo metrico estimativo, a priced bill of quantities, is the measured list of every item of work the design requires, with the quantity of each. Without one, four builders return four numbers that cannot be compared, because each has quietly assumed a different job.
With one, every builder prices the same quantities. What still differs are real differences: unit rates, the materials proposed, the programme offered. For a buyer who cannot stand in the room and argue the point, that is the most useful document in the file.
It keeps working once the site opens. A variation appears as a line whose quantity has moved or an item that was not there before, so it can be agreed and priced before it is built rather than discovered in the final account.
One limit, stated plainly: a bill of quantities is not a builder's quotation and not a commitment to spend. It is the measuring stick the quotations are written against.
Questions
Questions buyers and owners ask about the design stage
How long does the design stage take?
The design stage moves at the speed of two things: the documents that can actually be obtained for the property, and the decisions still open on your side. A measured survey of a flat is normally done in one visit. Review times at the comune differ from one comune to the next, so no single answer is honest. My written proposal sets a sequence with an expected date for each document and names the steps outside my control.
Do I need an architect rather than an engineer in Italy?
Italian law gives engineers and architects largely overlapping competence over ordinary civil buildings, so for a house renovation or a new dwelling you may appoint either. The emphasis differs: as a civil engineer I put structure, verification and measured quantities in the foreground. Where a building is protected by a vincolo, the design lead is reserved to an architect and I work alongside them on structure, energy and compliance.
What is the difference between the permit design and the construction design?
The permit design (progetto definitivo) is the level the comune needs in order to accept or issue the building title; it demonstrates that the work complies. The construction design (progetto esecutivo) is the level the builder needs in order to build: details, build-ups, setting-out and coordination between trades. Stopping at permit level is lawful, but it moves dozens of decisions onto the site, where they are taken in a hurry and cost more.
What happens if the survey does not match the cadastral plan?
A mismatch between the measured survey and the cadastral plan, or the drawings held on file at the comune, is common in Italy and has to be resolved before any new application is filed. The first step is establishing when the discrepancy arose and under which planning regime, because that determines which route is open. You receive that in writing, with the cost and time of regularising it, before design work continues.
Can I use my own builder?
The choice of builder is always yours. The drawings, the bill of quantities and the specification exist precisely so that you can put several builders against identical quantities. EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. is a company legally separate from my professional practice, with its own VAT number; awarding work to it is a free choice of yours and never a condition of the design appointment.
Next step
Send the address and what you want the building to become
An address, the intended use and one sentence about the result you want are enough to begin. You get back the scope of the appointment, the documents it produces and a written fee proposal before anything is committed. I work in Italian, but you are welcome to write to me in English or German too.