Schematic Elevations for a Spanish Colonial House After establishing the program for a project, the focus in the architectural design process shifts from what the problems are to how to solve those problems. During schematic design, the focus is on the "scheme", or overall design. Here, minor details should be ignored to instead focus on creating a coherent solution that encompasis the project as a whole. A major focus of this phase is the relationship between rooms and spaces. Consider which spaces should be adjacent to one another and gradients of public vs private spaces when sketching out the layout of spaces.