Friday, October 18th. The shoes I wore to meet the architect.

1 How to draw a line.

Architects use different lines for different purposes, but the line type most specific to architecture is drawn with an emphasis at the beginning and at the end. This practice anchors a line to the page and gives a drawing conviction and punch. If your line trails off at the ends, your drawings will tend to look wimpy and vague.

– Matthew Frederick, 101 Things I Learned In Architecture School

Design is all about having a point-of-view. Even if one chooses to design in a minimalist, utilitarian fashion, it says something. Design choices communicate aesthetic and philosophical values. Or the presence or absence thereof. Design choices communicate where you’ve been and ideally, where you’re going. They indicate what you’ve seen, where you’ve been, and who you’ve liked. They are pieces of ourselves, manifest.

We received our first schematic from Mark two weeks ago. It was his point-of-view to which we countered with our own. He asserted this. Then we asserted that. An opinion. A point-of-view. A line in the sand. A stake in the ground. Until, in effect, our house will arise as a three-dimensional form of volleyed opinions.