Otto the dog made it on to site!

24th August 2011

And here he is: Otto the mascot, the unique marker of our work (he has only the one back leg). Can you see him? He sits at the foot of the nearest steel. Otto came to us when we finished a listed building project (he can be seen on a table in the main photo for that scheme) and instantly made the team! He can be seen on our about page, and he will be make it to every project we do, unless someone drops a ton of steel on him. Which could happen, but we hope not..

The site foreman said I was crazy. He was probably right. What sort of architect brings a china dog on to site? Well, the answer is an architect who knows he is doing a thorough, professional and serious bit of work, and wants to make it enjoyable.

Good morale goes a long way to help good work. The job is at a critical stage, with most of the back wall of the original house removed and a lot of props holding things up. So in between heavy-duty discussion with the excellent steel fabricators (Riverside Steel), I slipped Otto on to site for a few happy snaps. We all know what’s required professionally, what’s not so clear is that we should all be enjoying this process and celebrating it as we go. Creativity and energy should co-exist  with the prosaic down n dirty of construction, so let’s not forget to laugh sometimes.

We are now nearly a third into the programme, and over the next few weeks the building will appear to accelerate very fast, as the timber frame for the first and second floors gets built and roofed. The steel frame is being measured, fabricated and erected as we go along, so dimensions are precise, and also meaning that everything is now “critical path”, meaning a delay to any part of the build will have a knock on effect. This requires trust an co-operation all round. So far so good: progress is OK, the design is working fine, and we are very optimistic about a beautiful finished product.

Next up – get the windows and kitchen ordered!