The large proportion of our course was project based. We were given a brief and a site and we had to go away and design a building.
My problem was I had never laid a brick in my life, let alone built a whole wall.
My mind couldn’t get past this fact. My thought process would go something like this:
‘OK, I’ve got to design a four bedroom house for a young couple.’
‘Right, OK, no problem. Who is this young couple?’
‘Augh, they are just imaginary. But the brief says that he’s into weight lifting and she owns a couple of horses.’
‘OK, that’s a four bedroom house with a gym and paddock then.’
‘So what about the site?’
‘Well there’s a nice view to the west.’
‘OK, big window to the west then. Great. Let’s start drawing.’
‘Hold on a second there. You’re not seriously going to start drawing yet are you?’
‘Well I thought it might be a good idea.’
‘But you’ve never actually built a house.’
‘Yeah, but I’ve lived in one all my life and I’ve seen lots of them. And anyway I’ve read up on how to build one so it should be OK.’
‘Yeah, but you’ve never actually built one with your bare hands. What gives you the right to think you could tell someone how to build a house?’
‘Well, I’ve read about brick laying...’
‘But you’ve never actually laid a brick?’
‘Yeah, but...’
‘Have you even ever lifted a brick?’
‘Well...’
So I decided in the holidays to get a job with a builder and start to get a bit of experience laying bricks.
I went to a local builder’s yard and they told me to turn up at a site in the town the next day. So I quit my job at Burger King and turned up the next day.
The foreman didn’t really know what to do with me. At the time I was built like a rake and I’m sure he looked at me and thought ‘This guy won’t last long’.
And he was right.
He set me to clearing some rubble and to be honest it killed me. After the 10 o’clock tea break I scarpered. I didn’t even tell anybody that I was leaving. I went straight back to Burger King and did what I was best at: mopping floors and cleaning toilets.
So I returned to university having still not laid a single brick.
One local architect I really admire is Mervyn Black. He left school and became a joiner. From there he worked up through the trade and eventually studied architecture as a mature student. He built his own house in Templepatrick and counts the beautiful Irish Linen Centre in Lisburn among his many designs.
What I admire is the man’s experience. He can actually relate to a joiner on site in a way I can never. He knows what it’s like to be on that site everyday struggling to make sense of the architect’s drawings and bringing his ideas into reality. That is something I will never have.
I read a book recently called ‘Pillars of the Earth’.
It’s a fictional story of a stone mason in the middle ages struggling to find work and support his family while holding on to this dream of designing and building a magnificent cathedral. What struck me was that there was no ‘architect’ in this story. It was the stone mason himself who drew out the plans, elevations and sections. And he was on site everyday overseeing the work.
Maybe today the idea of taking the time to work your way up through the trades to eventually become the designer is too costly or inefficient but I would like to suggest that knowledge rather than experience has been given too much emphasis. This is not to say that head knowledge is important- the two go hand in hand. But perhaps we need to rethink the route we take from the drawing board to the site.
At 35 I don’t have the same conundrums in my head that I used to as a student. I’ve laid a brick or two as well. Still haven’t built my own house. Maybe I will after I’ve experimented... I mean experienced a few more builds. I might even go and sign up for a joinery apprenticeship someday.
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