"I would like it if you left the chair and didn't move it yet," I said to one of the carpenters standing in one of the nearly finished dining rooms. He glanced at my face, then looked at the 2D drawing that i was holding. "But architect, that is not there," he said to me, pointing at the plan I was holding.
He was absolutely right; the chair I told him not to move was not there, neither was the wash hand basin beside it, the yellow pencil that he had put behind his left ear, or the old newspapers he had been sitting on during lunch. Yet, those things I saw were saying more to me about the dining room than my near 2D floor plan ever could.
All these happened a few years ago during one of my on going site visits to a residential project. The walls were plastered, windows were already fixed, some parts of the walls have been painted, and the front door was just installed with the smell of fresh paint. And anyone who didn't know much about houses could have easily thought that the house was already ready for the owners.
But looking inside, there was still a lot of work that was going on, yet to be ready. From the plumber doing some finishing touches to the electrician fixing all the wires to the right places. The painters are yet to finish their painting job; the carpenters were also still fixing the inner doors to all the rooms and appropriate places. Though some places look finished, they still need finishing touches.
We had the discussion longer than expected, because at that time, I had only been trained to look at the building from the drawings, details, and measurements, but after we spoke, I saw myself watching them and how they were doing their work instead. And in that moment, I saw how satisfying it was as I watched each and every one of them do their work very carefully and pay attention to details that the owners won't even see once they moved in.
While watching, the the carpenter I was with the other time called me, "Architect, quickly come and see this," He openedI the door without forcing it, and just where he needed it to stop, it stopped exactly at that point.
“Now it is behaving,” he said.
I just smiled.
That little site experience was something I kept remembering because, technically, before that moment, the door had already been installed correctly. What were were just checking was the final adjustments that one one who was not part of the project cannot notice.
And when a friend saw the picture of the house on my system, he appreciated the clean lines and the good looking views. I knew why. And that was the part anyone could have paid attention to.
But I kept thinking about the washing hand basin, the chair, and the yellow pencil that carpenter put at the back of his ear while he was testing those doors over and over again.
When a building is completed, that is the most visible part of a much longer story. The hands that finished it and worked on it leave almostt no signature, yet what they have done are sitting inside the walls.
And now, anytime I enter a new building and I see the perfect work, I always find myself wandering who were the people always staying back to do the finishing work when no one was there with them.
Thank you for reading.
Images created by Gemini AI
