The Act of Making

Images, Baillie Baillie
Words, Colin Baillie.

The Act of Making

When it comes to making buildings, construction follows only after many months (often years) of work with people, paper, computers, and scale models. However close we try to bring ourselves to the tangible reality of the things we draw, there remains a certain sense of uncertainty, excitement, and wonder as things begin to take physical form. It’s in the act of making that architecture comes into being, and there’s a great joy in seeing an accumulation of conversations, thoughts and ideas translated, through hard graft, into places to inhabit.

We set out to work with the process of construction, and we find that a mutual understanding of how things fit together allows us to establish a collaborative relationship with builders. Being very precise about how things are assembled also allows us to reduce waste, as well as addressing an increasingly common perception of ‘risk’ in bespoke design as seen from the builders’ point of view. On our monolithic clay block projects for example, we draw every block and set out all windows and doors to full block sizes. This minimises waste, time, and consequently cost. We do the same with every exposed timber member. There’s a satisfaction in bringing a sense of simplicity and order to a complex building project.

Building is also a time for critical reflection, and we make continual questioning a point of discipline in the studio. Where could we have reduced embodied carbon or made more of an opportunity? No building is ever perfect and we don’t see the point in pretending otherwise. With this approach we never miss an opportunity to learn.