great thread.
What could be more importand than design?
When the design is set, everything else should be like swimming downstream.
The folks I enjoy the most these days are the ones who say "we're building in five years and would like to work out our plans first" Good, I tell them, having a year or two or three to build a good plan is a good idea. Give it time, look for similar buildings and check them out, have all those second thoughts without the weight of a construction budget and a banker or two hanging over you.....

In my opinion, everything starts with the site. Presumably someone has chosen the property because they find it beautiful. I don't think there is anything the site can't tell you. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out what it is asking for, but it will speak given time. I think starting planning years in advance, if possible, is the best way to go. Of course it rarely is.

Many people will say you can put any house anywhere and make the site work for it. I disagree. Let the site do the talking and don't EVER do anything it doesn't want. Then you'll have a house that people will want to live in, will enjoy and will have good resale value.

The site should even have more say than the clients. If your goal, in the end, is to have happy clients, let the site do the talking and it will invite the clients to think highly of what you have given them.

The site, the site, the site.

Site 1: topography
Site 2: Sun
Site 3: landscape
Four: harmony
Five: home

not consumption, symbiosis