The gap between a published image and a finished building is usually a gap in the drawings. Something was never dimensioned. A junction was left to the contractor. A material was named without a thickness.
A gap in the drawings
The gap between a published image and a finished building is usually a gap in the drawings. Something was never dimensioned. A junction was left to the contractor. A material was named without a thickness.
On site these absences become inventions, and the inventions are rarely as good as the picture.
Structure early
We decide structure early so the plan is not decorated after the frame is fixed. A span, a grid, a wall that can take a load — these are in the first sections.
If a room wants a corner window, the frame must allow it. If it does not, the room changes. The alternative is a steel afterthought that will show, or a window that looks like the drawing and leaks.
Details as they will be made
Details are drawn as they will be made. A window meeting a wall is a sequence of layers with a flash and a seal, not a single line.
We do not invent a junction that requires a workshop we will not have on site. Where a junction is difficult, we go to the site and stand in it before we finish the sheet.
A short specification
The specification is short. Long specifications hide decisions. Ours name the material, the dimension, the finish and the one product that cannot be substituted without a conversation.
Contractors prefer this. So do we. A substitution that arrives as a surprise is how a concrete wall becomes a painted board.
Site visits
Site visits are not inspections of progress photographs. We go to see whether the drawing still holds. If a level is off, the next sheet changes.
Hold the job
We do not stay on jobs where we cannot visit. A drawing sent to another city and left there will not survive. Drawings that survive the site are detailed where the building can fail: water, structure, the meeting of two materials.
