The Life Cycle

"We must use a good deal of economy in our wood, never cutting down new, where we can make the old do." -Thomas Jefferson


      Each and every building has a life cycle. It's conceived, it's built, it works and then it dies. It's a sad thing to think about because it reminds us of our own mortality. However, at least we can give back. We can take advantage of our time and use it to make the world a better place. A building- just is. An object does not perceive time or emotion, we assign our feelings onto the spaces around us. Does this not make our spaces extensions of ourselves?

      We desire to change the landscape- to create something that is better and more comfortable for us. We plan, think and come up with designs that would be up and running in a matter of months. However, once the project is up, I have always found that construction is very invasive. Yes, you end up with a small area that is an "ideal", but the remainder of the space is left to lie in ruin. We leave with a promise to just grow something else or build up the rest of the site. We promise to finish our project later. We promise to clean up after ourselves.

      Yet waste is hard to remove altogether. It's mostly just moved around from one place to the next and the mess we left behind is often nothing more than out of sight. Very few of our current mainstream building materials biodegrade completely or even add something to the environment they are placed in. We put these up- and then try and lose the scrap.

      The study of construction is often considered brutal and a bore to the common architect or student. I am of the firm belief that construction should be more like surgery. We should not seek to tear apart bones (like the trees and old materials of an original site) and then simply promise our patient some new bones and we should take care to be as non invasive as possible. The land will "feel" better as a result. This will help with the preservation of the environment and help with the preservation of ourselves.