Setting out

In the time honoured tradition of all great French architectural masterpieces, very soon after having been delivered to the end user, the Maison Camy is now completely covered in scaffolding. The only exception to the tradition being the Centre Georges Pompidou where, despite very little scaffolding having been used during the construction, your average Parisian, Josèphe Souffle, is convinced that the building is made of scaffolding that has never been taken down.


The scaffolding is attracting attention from passers by (in a Tom Waits 'what's he building in there?' style). A tentative start has been made setting out the positions of the stainless steel brackets that will hold the timber cladding. The cat cottoned on rapidly to the advantage of scaffolding and now surprises The Client regularly with his plaintive cries to be let in at first and second floor levels of the house, hitherto completely inaccessible. The scaffolding, in feline reasoning, represents a serious increase in square metres of defendable territory and will no doubt become the source of elevated night time battles.


The Architect is testing out an entirely revolutionary building technique as yet untried by small building contractors in France. It involves unfolding a plan and looking at it before you build. Readers will be kept informed on the relative merits of the technique as opposed to the more traditional methods.

I will no doubt be punished for my arrogance, in reality I'm quite apprehensive of the whole thing, especially the timescale of what's to be done.