Thoughts on construction.

Construction is the process of painstakingly removing all evidence of the architect’s efforts. Each concept and ideology must be carefully removed to reveal the pure structure beneath. The holes in the design must be pointed out to the architect with exasperation, then patched, filled and spackled over to provide a smooth finish on which the owner can base their business. Under no circumstances should the design be modified without the consent of the owner. The architect should be notified only after changes can no longer be unchanged. The purity of the structure must be upheld. However, the purity of the design should be viewed with great suspicion. Engineers deal in facts and figures. These can be constructed with ease. Designers deal in ideas. Ideas should not be constructed. Ideas will leak. Ideas will invite discussion and controversy. Ideas will distract the inhabitants from their work, decreasing productivity. Ideas are for drawings, not buildings. Construction should be viewed as an instrument of production, a vehicle for progress and profit. The design is a vessel for emotions and should be suppressed and buried deep inside. No one needs to hear about your pain, let alone work inside it. Cubicles are meant to be aligned in neat rows not scattered about haphazardly on the whims of some grad student’s “feelings”. Take note, Verify in Field” is an invitation to construct whatever you need to in the real world. Measure twice and cut once, and cut deep, to the bone of the building. Remove the “fat” of the “design” swiftly and thoroughly. Get to what is real and good and true and right. Don’t be seduced by the detail and illustration of the designer’s thoughts on the process of construction. Don’t follow the advice of those that have not dirtied their hands in the muck of the job site. Suspect anyone who shows up at the site once a month with a moleskin notebook and wearing all black, sweating in the sun. They will only add more to your work. They will wave their arms. They will announce that things are deviating from the design concept. They will raise their voices. They will try to seduce you into believing in their ideals. They will claim to represent the true desires of the owner. They will espouse original intent, posit authority over the design direction. They will sound confident, honest, yet nervous. But, their voices will waver when confronted with the realities of construction techniques. They will not know how to handle the equipment of our work. They are uninformed. Do not believe them. They do not know what we’ve been through. They do not know the heaviness of our load. The burden of completing the work. They do not know. The ideas they hold to so firmly. The dreams, and hopes, and desires, and forms, and textures, and hierarchies, and alignments are all lies. They are distractions from the real work at hand: the construction.

Don’t think. Just Build.