Builders & Designers: The Perfect Pair
Look at any piece of fine impressionist art. From ten feet away, it’s a unified image that’s beautiful, flowing, seamless. Oftentimes the subject matter appears clearly, glowing in the softness of the painter’s use of what some consider to be broad brushstrokes. The point is, you see it clearly, simply, the unified image.
Now step closer to a few inches away, you begin to realize that all that texture and softness comes from an intricate blend of colors that you would never think to paint within a scene like that. Van Gogh’s Starry Night is filled with greens, oranges, and bright blues that don’t make any sense to those of us who would assume that to paint a night sky, you should just use black.
This is analogous to the relationship builders and designers have. From far away, it’s simple, “She designs it, he builds it” but step closer and you’ll see the intricate markings of a thousand small decisions made in contrast and harmony with one another. This cannot be overstated, the dynamic between an interior designer and a builder is the difference between having a beautiful plan and then having it become real. A wonderful idea is only as good as the ability one has of actually creating it.
Curiosity
Ask questions. This is something really subtle in the Slaughter Design Studio approach, but it’s ultimately something definitive. Good answers aren’t formed quickly, they come from good questions and the presence of good space for curiosity. No one knows everything, and as we learn what a builder thinks, or why a client is asking a question we open ourselves up to really discovering what’s driving a decision. When we’re curious about one another, it means we’re not defensive, standing on our back foot and trying to hide our lack of understanding. Few people have used overconfidence to create beautiful designs in the context of a team; so think about an open-minded approach to one another and what it could produce. Who knows, with good questioning minds, the chances of discovering ideas and approaches that are truly unique become so much higher.
So when a builder and a designer get in the room together, they are trying to understand where each is coming from. The designer: learning and acknowledging physical constraints, requirements shaped by a site, coming face to face with the need to bear the weight of a roof and the space required to swing a door open and closed. Experienced designers have learned much about the dos and don'ts of construction, but each new project is still an opportunity to grow. Meanwhile, the builder is coming face to face with softer needs such as the desires of ethos, and personality as expressed through the visual and spacial language of the designer. What makes someone a great builder, is their ability to creatively bend a structure around an aesthetic in a reliable and functioning way. It’s a deeply refined skill and is constantly being updated with the unique opportunities of each new project.
Counterbalance
Knowing the others’ job is really important. A belligerent builder and an overly-sensitive designer make a recipe for a real disaster. Conversely, when a pair knows how to hold the tension well, they can produce better end results. No, this isn’t a disagreement with the previous paragraphs. Curiosity is an approach to holding good tension, it’s a gracious way to find the middle-ground. Design is fundamentally a process , and any good process utilizes a series of “checkpoints” to refine and solidify the work. We’ve all seen the results of rushing and we’ve all seen stall out, so we’re identifying this space between.
The builder and designer should be pulling their expertise toward one another.
We may think about a designer always “fighting” for aesthetics and a builder “fighting” for easy practicality, but in today’s world, with such wonderful and well-educated folks in each camp, you can do this very differently. Instead of pulling away from each other, they pull towards. That means a designer is constantly pulling the design and aesthetic closer to the practical, checking their really clean wall design against the need to have an air register nearby to keep the room cool. Conversely, the builder is working hard to bring on good construction practices that minimize any negative impact of the necessary elements of a building while expressing the maximum aesthetic appeal along the way. By taking special care to execute details well in construction, the work takes on the refinement needed to keep from disrupting the design. Collaboration looks like, “Oh that’s a great idea, and you know, we could really take our time to get that placement and finish right, then your light fixture can really get the attention that it needs, despite having to be so close to the corner of that wall.”
When a builder and designer are working hard to solve with and for the other person, the client is truly getting more than they bargained for in the best way possible!
Common Language
We’ve been told to communicate more clearly on this point. We speak architectural as well as design languages. This is what sets an interior designer apart from being just a decorator. Stick the right builder and right designer in a room together, and they’ll just take off in a common language. When no translator is necessary, a client ends up sitting in the perfect seat as a point of guidance and inspiration to independent team members who are capable of translating it to the hundreds of hands who will bring a project from a dusty site to a polished dining room. Isn’t this the way it should be? A client shouldn’t spend time in a repetitive cycle of trying to get their point across, and when you have a curious, balanced pair who are speaking the same language, there’s no way to get stuck for very long. Each stroke gets painted effortlessly and with precision, each detail refined and implemented with purpose.
With all that said, we love working with fantastic builders, and we’ve had the privilege of seeing this kind of partnership first-hand many times. We know that builders can be a best friend to a great idea, so we’re always grateful when we get to work this way! Great art is made in small strokes, and our proficiency in making even minor decisions together is ultimately what gives the whole result its texture and beauty. We couldn’t do it without each other!
*Special thanks for Paper Moon Painting, the photos of your work don’t tell even half the story!
