ABSTRACT
The glamorous and the dramatic aspects of building that have been dealt with in novels and turned into films concern the relationship between the architect and the client, or the building process. The first is seen in The Fountainhead (Rand, 1943), which is concerned with the creative process of design and seen as the glamorous aspect of building. Truer to life is Mr Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse (Hodgins, 1946). The film that was made of the book includes a memorable scene in which the foreman carpenter asks Mrs Blandings whether she wants the cills rebated or unrebated. Her decision to have them unrebated leads to a cascade of falling timber as the rebated cills are ripped out. She explains to her husband, ‘I thought it sounded cheaper’. Here, the book and the film get to the heart of building, being precise about what it is that you want. Kidder (1985) in a more recent novel, House, tells the story from the point of view of the contractor, where some of the drama rises directly from poor communication between the parties. H. B. Creswell’s two books The Honeywood File and The Honeywood Settlement (Creswell, 1929, 1930) deal exclusively with communication. These books, which are the imaginary letter files of an architect building a house for a rich client, although written over three quarters of a century ago, are still excellent reading for anyone involved in this process and, although presented in a lighthearted manner, take the issues that have been occasionally dealt with by novelists and present them as matters for serious consideration by professionals. Just as the routine of police work is never shown in police dramas, behind the drama of building is this routine but vital work of communicating precisely what it is that is wanted.
