essay · 22 April 2026
On restraint, and other working principles
A short note on why most of the work, in our practice, is the work of not doing.
Most of the value we add to a heritage building, we add by removing things. Drainpipes that crack a cornice. Air-conditioning units bolted through historic plaster. Suspended ceilings that disguise a vaulted ceiling no one has seen in fifty years. The first job is to find the building under what has been done to it.
The second job is to leave the building alone for long enough to understand what it wants. Restoration that proceeds too fast tends to over-correct: it re-renders walls that were honest, re-paints joinery that had its own patina, fills in marks that record a real history of use.
We try to make our drawings reflect this. The first set of survey drawings we produce on any heritage commission shows what is there — every crack, every patch, every later addition. We mark them carefully. Many of them stay.