The silent brief part II: on buildings of insignificance.
While researching a project several weeks back I stumbled across a bit of text, a sort of missing link, that I had been looking for on another project years ago. After all this time, I was able to establish a tangible link between a house which I had carefully been looking after and Viollet le Duc who, for me a French trained Architect, is an almost mythological figure.
Sensing this type of connection through a building’s past, the clients who commissioned them, the Architects and builders who built them, its inhabitants, is important to understanding the decisions we take in intervention. We shouldn’t deny the fact that buildings speak to us, should we want to listen and trust our instinct.
Like the time a seemingly insignificant roof window in a villa caught my attention and spoke to me. Hiding in plain sight, I followed its footsteps which led me to Nash’s early work in the South Wales where the villa was situated. The window acted as a bridge from the intuitive to the factual.
I’ve often wondered what sort of magical fairies have put me in these situations full of enigmas, spurring my curiosity and exciting my soul. It then occurred to me that I have never really worked on buildings of “insignificance”.
It is clear to me now that all buildings have something to say, a history to be told like friends chatting over dinner. I truly believe that all buildings have a magical story in them, just like all souls are unique and beautiful in their own way and the peculiar is the key to their beautiful story.
A building is at the other end of one or multiple souls creative energy.
It was dreamed, conceived, built, altered, re-discovered, re-dreamed etc
Buildings trace us back to our purpose, our journey, they are our anchors into the world in which we have been projected into. They are our vessels. Their stories matter and are retained within.
As we move to an approach of less-destructive design of buildings emphasising re-use, learning to listen again has never been so crucial. Weaving together the building’s new story to those of our predecessors and ancestors is a true skill to practice. This is the Architect’s role its purpose, vocation, and fascinating call.
Anaïs Bléhaut, Director, daab design
Photography by Jim Stephenson