Grind, Mash, Distill

Abstract

There never comes a point at which we can declare any building "finished", and never touch it again; if we were to do this it would signal a sad sort of death and the end of the building's use, because it is by a continual process of revision that they fulfill our ever-changing needs and tastes. However, acknowledging this dynamic aspect of the nature of buildings brings the role of the architect into question; how can we design a building, make drawings and reach practical completion on a building site whilst being aware of the looming future, with its eternal punch list of alterations? Or, how can an awareness of passing time as a gradual tweaker, weatherer, and alterer of buildings be seen not as a problem or annoyance for the architect, but as a generous and reliable source of inspiration, a giver of richness, even a generator of good design? The project aims to answer this question by suggesting a way of building slowly, over decades, always looking forward and back.