Most nights now my sleep is broken by bad dreams or half-formed panicked thoughts about some mistake in the design. Last night I lied awake for about an hour trying to stop myself from wondering if there will be enough operable windows in the studio. To reduce the window costs, a few weeks ago when placing the order, I switched some operators with fixed units. At 3:30 this morning, it suddenly seemed obvious that in hot weather the interior is going to be stuffy and overheated. To ease my mind, I emailed the window supplier this morning with some revisions that, at this late stage, might not come cheap. I can never stop second-guessing myself. Being a perfectionist is both exhausting and costly.
Carla’s dad, John Robert, who’s been helping since last week, is equally obsessive. As a carpenter by trade who built his own cottage (where we’re staying) almost completely by himself, he looks at building from a pragmatic point of view. My approach to detailing, on the other hand, comes out of a minimalist aesthetic where the final goal is to create very precise alignments between finished surfaces. This often requires some counterintuitive detailing of structural elements. In one instance, I need a carrying beam for the second floor cantilever to be suspended above a window, exactly where it should logically never go. Luckily John Robert is very accepting, even when I can’t explain myself in clear terms and resort to saying simply, ‘I just want it to look a certain way’, or ‘It’ll all make sense later on’. But working side by side every day, the difference in mindset between the Architect and the Builder has never been clearer to me.
- Geoff
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