ABSTRACT
Design doesn’t stop when buildings are completed. It’s routinely renewed during occupation and adaption. Likewise it’s normal for design refinements to continue right through construction. Hand construction may sound unrealistically out of date, but makes it easier to adapt buildings when potential benefits or shortcomings become apparent. Hand construction also gives textural scale: bricks, slates and wood are hand-scaled, mechanically erected panels crane-scaled. Where opportunities exist for the builders to become artistically involved in their work, such buildings have a distinct soul even before they’re occupied. The spirit of a place can develop because of, not in spite of, the building. Hence, quite apart from its appearance, method of construction and form of contract have a bearing on the spirit of a building.
