A week of sketching on site
· 2 min read
Most problems with staircases turn out to be problems with time. The low-energy part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. Good buildings are chiefly made of good conversations.
Where it started
Daylight is the cheapest and most generous material we have. The result is not perfect, but it is candid. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about staircases. Thanks for reading, and for the generous observations that keep arriving.
There is no single right way to approach reusing materials, but some ways are kinder than others. Half of the work is deciding what to leave out. The first seven weeks were chiefly about unlearning. Some of this will be plain; some of it took me years.
Second thoughts
I would rather do one thing deliberately than five things fast. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about thresholds. It is effortless to overthink drawing sections. It is harder to just start. I keep coming back to renovations, chiefly because it rewards patience.
A friend once described thresholds as still work, and the phrase stuck. We start every project by spending time on the site at different hours. If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you. I keep coming back to staircases, chiefly because it rewards patience.
The process
The specifics matter less than the practice of paying attention. Nothing here requires a scale ruler, though it does make things easier. Modest buildings demand the same care as large ones, sometimes more. The compact part is seldom the hard part; consistency is.
We draw by hand early on; it keeps decisions loose. This began as a quick note and bit by bit turned into something longer. I tested the compact version first. It did not last.
There is no single right way to approach sketching on site, but some ways are kinder than others. I wrote most of this on a still Thursday morning. Materials should age well rather than stay new.
If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about public spaces. I changed my mind about retrofit twice while writing this. I changed my mind about thresholds twice while writing this.
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