A mindful collaboration : a timber design-build

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can architects collectively approach the design and construction processes to produce bespoke architectural products successfully?

ABSTRACT: Architects and designers should create atmosphere and invoke a connection from the built environment to the inhabitant. For the vision of a designer or client to be complete, a whole team of individuals is required to be involved throughout the process. Hundreds of years ago an architect nee master craftsman was employed to design, build and construct a building. The master craftsman title was trusted, only earned over years of training as an apprentice, learning the tested techniques and processes to deliver the final product to the client. In this day in age, architects are reduced to merely a form-giver or design-shaper; the skills required to produce architecture have been dissected into so many specialist roles that a disconnect has appeared in the design delivery process. The architect is no longer hands-on during the construction phase and is left with a compromised design that commonly lacks in individual expression. Technology these days has forged new skills and through additional tools, enabled designers to obtain the complex forms capable by the advanced software and CAD/CAM systems available. The flexibility within the traditional design delivery processes allow for hybrid design build methods to be employed by designers to realise their complex concepts through making. The aim is to give the designer back some hands-on experience by adapting the design process with the support of trained industry professionals to create bespoke architecture.