Buildings are some of the most permanent things we humans make. They are what give us a sense of constancy, a stable environment to return to each day. However, the buildings themselves, the materials that make up their structures, are far from unchanging.
To ensure the permanence of buildings, which is their primary function, everyone therefore needs to have a relation of care to the buildings they live and work in. These sorts of relations can only be made possible by careful construction work. Builders not only need to work carefully to ensure the longevity of their work, but they also need to take pride in their work, displaying their workmanship in the very structures of the building. In this way, building occupiers can see how the building has been put together. They can access all its detailing and have a clear sense of how to maintain and repair the structure as the materials change over time.
A sustainment with respect to construction is therefore not merely sourcing non-polluting renewable materials or building services, practicing resource efficiency or setting up construction site waste management; rather it involves all this and more, projected forwards, as something embedded in the very fabric of the building in such a way that it educates the users of the building in the sustainable values with which it was built.
