Architecture LIVE 7
|
|
|
| Fear flutters down as I work on the roof. I imagine gale force winds sucking on the flimsy skin. Suddenly, the purlins I am using seem too slender and too far apart. I lever myself forward using the weight of logic, speaking aloud. I gain enough reassurance from this to labour on, watching in fascination the shape of the building emerging. I am assembing a dream from memory, teasing it into realty. The enticement to be inside is strengthening. |
|
|
|
| We visit the roofing factory, pick a profile and a colour. On the way back I get a brainwave about sourcing clay in a quarry. I am drunk on encouragement. The simpler the task gets the more puzzling it becomes. |
| Making a small building to live in is just not that hard – physically, that is. The struggles are mostly abstract. This is why it is most important to have a design that is leading you in the right direction. As you put your plan into action the struggles you encounter will all be minor ones because you have disposed of your excess baggage during the design phase. The power of this approach is similar to that of the lever – a small weight applied to tremendous effect. |
| The phone line and our inboxes are strangely quite. We have no idea exactly why. All the more time to focus on the here and now. The silent tide carries us gently along, the shore receeding and approaching like a breath. This rhythm is dreamy and unfolds like a dance. |
| I prance about on the frame, survey the countryside and the sky. This is the backdrop against which I perform, articifer of restlessness and dream. The outside world all but disappears as I catch the updraughts and descent renewed. Cars slow and cows pay quiet attention. |
| The next quest is to source the clay which is done with a simple phone call. A local quarry will deliver as much as I want for the price of carriage. The ease of this is balanced with the news that the price of the roofing we want is coming in way over budget. This see-sawing of expectation and dream makes me dizzy and reignites the embers of fear. |
|
|
| Putting a roof over one’s head will always trawl up fears and tantalise one with dreams which might or might not be realised. This marks the dividing line between possibility and realisation, between inner and outer. |
| I heave myself up on the frame to adjudicate on the likely outcome of this situation, securing the roof with a few more nails. The solidity and strength I feel is reassuring, encouraging me to dive within the unfolding mystery and to test its depth. |
| We have carried out an audit of resources and declare ourselves ready to commit to expenditure which will now enclose the frame, hiving off a portion of the universe for our personal use. We have even found a car within our price range. The unfolding gathers momentum as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. |
|
|
| As is becoming the norm, forward motion is balanced with pauses and puzzlement. A visit to the quarry – in the newly acquired car - to inspect the clay turns out to be a visit to the underworld. Dust and noise fills the air. The land is torn open and is being devoured by giant machines. Trees stand forlorn alongside mounds of upturned earth. My guide indicates one with a nod of his head. ‘You can take as much of that as you want’. |
| I struggle in the devestation to explain myself. ‘Well it’s really clay I want – to build with.’ |
| ‘Clay, you mean topsoil like?’ |
| ‘No, clay.’ I pick up a handful and work it into a ball while he watches. Below me, in a huge pit, machines and trucks act out a strange slow-motion ballet. I struggle to find words and a way of retreating. I fill the bucket with some ‘samples’ and enter back into the world of light puzzling as to how I can fill this sudden hole in my plans. |
| Work on the roof offers plenty of destraction. I lay in the boarding on the east side marvelling at the subtle emergence of the inside of the building. Next I negotiate a reduced price for the roofing and place the order. |
|
|
| Things move slowly forward as I accept that the roof is where my attention is most needed. Once that is in place there will be a covered place to work and the walls will take precedence. |
|
|
| Architecture LIVE 8 |
| Architecture LIVE 6 |