This month has been a full one from our perspective and has reminded me of the importance of having a design thinker as part of the build process. Without one, the client sits firmly in the hands of the builder. As good as they are at what they do, builders are trained to think about ‘buildability’ as priority one. Designers are trained to think about ‘design’ as priority one.

Just like you wouldn’t give me a hammer and saw and ask me to build your home, you should probably also not ask your builder to go and design it for you, make sense?

Yes there are great builders out there (and we are lucky to work with some at present) who have a keen design eye, and probably architects out there who can wield a hammer and build. Doesn’t mean they should :)

Buildability of course has a huge part to play in any successful build project and should always be front of mind as it is in our design philosophy. However, just because something may be a little more difficult to put together from a construction perspective, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. If this were the case buildings like the opera house would never have been built!

I am not for a moment suggesting our work is comparable to the ‘opera house’ but it is filled with several ‘designed’ details that give our homes their personality and ‘architecture’ if you like.

In the case of our Willoughby house the brick detailing falls firmly into the basket of a little tricky to build but powerful in the architectural presence it adds to the home. It would have been very easy to have a simple opening to the garage door entry on the project like you would normally expect. However, given its frontage to the street and scale as an element we believed it should have a ‘presence’ and reflect the fact that it addresses the public realm. The result we believe is a little bit of love for a pragmatic component of the build, that adds strength to the building and elevates the function presenting as a ‘designed’ element to the street. Image to the left with a glimpse of said brick detailing in the afternoon sun. Enjoy your week!