Journal
Studio
7 min read
What a house learns in its first year
Twelve months after handover we go back. Here is what we usually find, and what it has taught us about designing the next house.
By Carolina Mendes
Note
Studio
A house is not finished on the day the keys change hands. It is finished a year later, after a full cycle of seasons, when its owners have learned where they actually sit, sleep, read and gather.
The first-year visit
Twelve months after every handover, two of us return for a full day. We check how the timber has moved and the lime has cured, adjust doors and shutters, and listen to what the family has discovered about their home.
The lessons are rarely dramatic. A reading lamp that should have been on the other side of the chair. A window seat everyone fights over, so the next house gets two. A hook by the door that nobody asked for and everybody uses.
The most useful drawings we make are the ones we make after the house is finished.
Feeding the next project
Everything we learn goes into a notebook that every new project starts from. After seventy houses it has become our most valuable document — and the reason our clients often say their home feels lived-in from the very first day.
