The Man and Wheelbarrow

 

If architecture is about moving materials from one place and putting them in another, then we cannot ignore the importance of the tools of transport.

Before cranes they used pulleys, poles and chains for lifting things. All these machines are reflections of ingeniousness in finding ways of moving heavy things into their proper places. These are spectacular to watch at work, as is watching an excavator moving earth. But I am also attracted to essential things that establish the primary principles of how things run.

The humble wheelbarrow always has a place: one wheel and two handles and a tray on top. How useful this vary basic of tools is immeasurable. It carries anything from cement, screed mixes, bricks, sacks, sand to those nooks and crannies on a building site where the bigger tools will not go. It is the simplest extension of how a man must use his arms and legs to get work done.

In the past two years of working on a building site, I've developed an enormous admiration for the builder's labourer, the bricklayer, the welder, the carpenter the stonemason. These are the people who cut things to size, shape them and fix them where they belong. High technology has its place but buildings thankfully still require the best of handicraft. The love of architecture is also about appreciating how materials and effort comport.

 
Lucignano, 1 2 2007