You already know you were meant to do this.
A 16-week residential design program for aspiring home designers. Built by a practicing designer with 12 years and hundreds of homes under her belt. You learn by doing a real project with me in your corner twice a week.
This is for you if:
You're making a career change into what you've always wanted to do. Design has been calling you for years. You don't need another year of thinking about it. You need the path.
You're an interior designer tired of only touching the finishes. You want to draw plans that builders respect and walk onto a jobsite knowing you belong there.
You have a technical background in architecture, drafting, or construction but you're missing the residential workflow and the business framework to go out on your own.
Students come into this program working full-time jobs, raising kids, managing everything life throws at them, and they still build something real in 16 weeks. This is a career where you're in the driver's seat. You decide when you work, which projects you take, and how your days look. If you have 6 hours a week and the drive, we'll get you there.
No degree, license, or prior professional experience is required. 88% of places don’t require an architect’s stamp for single-family residential. As long as you can operate a computer and a mouse, I’ll show you the rest.
No other program is doing this.
The complete path from loving homes to designing them professionally. The thinking process, the construction knowledge, the builder communication, the client relationships, the pricing, all of it. Architecture school doesn't cover it. Nothing online is putting it all together.
I had two architecture degrees and every advantage, and it still took me over a decade to develop the workflow I use today. I built the Academy to collapse that timeline. 16 weeks, one real project, concept through construction documents, with me walking you through the same process I use on every home I design.
Over 16 weeks, you build a complete residential project and prove to yourself what you're capable of.
Full prerecorded curriculum with weekly assignments.
Live coaching calls 2x per week for direct feedback on your work.
All of Rafi’s proposals, pricing templates, and social media blueprint.
A community of designers building with you.
What you’ll be learning:
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Every successful project starts the same way, and it's not with a floor plan. You start with the questions most designers skip. Who is this home for? How do they actually live? What are the constraints? What style, what massing, what proportions? By the end of this module you'll understand why a home should look and feel the way it does. You'll be thinking about the client's life, the site, the architectural style, and the overall form of the home as one connected thought. That's the foundation everything else builds on.
Client discovery and programming every space
Site analysis, constraints, and zoning
33 architectural styles and how to identify them
Massing, proportions, and the golden ratio
Space blocks and room sizing with real furniture dimensions
Flow, circulation, and how a home should moveion text goes here
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This is where all that thinking becomes a real design. You're taking your mood boards, your programming, your massing studies and turning them into floor plans with cohesive, beautiful elevations. We make sure the spaces work for both beauty and daily life. This is where you go from someone who thinks about design to someone who is designing. And you're doing it on a real project with me reviewing every decision.
Floor plan design from scratch in Rayon
Space planning for kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, living areas, and outdoor spaces
Door types, placements, swings, and standard sizing
Ceiling height strategies for comfort and architectural presence
Developing exterior elevations that align with your chosen style
How homes are actually built (overview for designers)
Circulation and flow between spaces
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Beautiful designs are great, but only if they can actually get built. In this module we dive into construction, how things come together, and what your documents need to communicate so nothing gets lost between your design and the finished home. Your builders will do whatever they want if there's not proper documentation showing them the real design intent. After this module, builders will respect your drawings and you'll have the confidence to speak their language on the jobsite.
Basic builder sets vs full construction document sets
Dimensioned floor plans, elevations, and roof plans
Building sections and wall sections
Window and door schedules
Electrical and lighting layouts
Construction details and material transitions
Design development vs construction documentation phases
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I spent years with no idea how to get clients. I tried a million and a half things. Some worked. Most didn't. In this module I share everything: what worked for me, what didn't, how I grew through social media, how I got clients before social media, how to price your work, and the exact proposals and contracts I use in my practice. You're not starting from scratch.
Complete project workflow from inquiry to final deliverables
Where to find clients and how to attract them consistently
How I built 100K+ on Instagram and what content actually converts
Proposal and pricing structures (my templates included)
Fixed fee vs hourly pricing and when to use each
Client intake and expectation management
Setting up your booking funnel and online presence
Students Who’ve Been Where You Are:
Renata came in with almost five years of self-taught experience and still wasn’t sure she was ready. She joined anyway and designed a project that blew her own mind. She’s since grown her team to include a senior designer and a structural engineer.
“Rafi really taught us to look at the mass of the home first before we dove into the floor plan design. I looked at the renderings when we were done and I was amazed at what I had created. I left the program really proud of myself.”
Sarah almost didn’t apply. She had one year of architecture school, all theoretical, and zero residential experience. She was working full-time and almost convinced herself she needed to finish her degree first. Over just a couple weeks in the Academy, she went from initial sketches that barely held together to designing an entire house from scratch with real constraints, real style research, and material palettes. On her very first client project after the program, her floor plan impressed me on first review. Not “good for a beginner.” Good.
“Is someone actually doing this outside of architecture school? Actually teaching how to design homes? The Academy was like my formal schooling. It’s given me this safety net.”
Leslie is a stay-at-home mom who had been helping her husband with flips for years. She always knew what the homes should look like, but contractors and architects wouldn't take her seriously. They'd tell her things weren't possible when her gut said they were, and she never had the language or the technical knowledge to push back. She joined the Academy to finally close that gap. She wasn't expecting it to challenge her the way it did, but gaining an understanding of home construction completely transformed her design standards. Now she's designing projects for her husband's business and taking on renovation clients of her own.
"I wasn't expecting much out of the course to be completely honest. I didn't feel it was going to challenge me the way it did. Rafi's ability to understand my vision on each step and give instant feedback during live sessions was invaluable. The live sessions were not only what kept me engaged but also what gave me the inspiration to keep developing my design skills."
What You Walk Away With
The confidence to sit across from any client or builder and own the conversation. When you can explain why the roofline responds to the massing, or walk a client through the programming behind every room, nobody asks where you went to school. They just trust you.
A complete project in your portfolio that shows prospective clients exactly what you can do. Not a class exercise. A full home design detailed for actual construction.
A process you trust and can repeat on every project. The same framework I use on every home I design, from pre-design through construction documents.
Clients who value your work and a clear path to getting more of them. You’ll know how to price a project, where to find clients, and how to run the business side without guessing.
The freedom to work for yourself, set your own schedule, and build a career around the life you actually want. I’m living proof that’s possible. I’m in my 30s, a single mom, running a firm in Miami with projects globally. My students are building it too.
Ready to Get Started?
Start with the free course. I’ll walk you through the actual design framework I use on every project, with real examples from real clients. About half an hour. No fluff. Just the process. You’ll walk away with professional vocabulary you didn’t have before and a completely different way of looking at homes.
When you’re ready, book a call and we’ll talk through everything. I review every application personally because I only take students I know I can help.