Building steps
The line between rules and freedom
I’VE BEEN LOOKING AT THE WOODWORK on this little island in the Andaman Sea, tucked in between coastal Thailand and Burma. Its rudimentary, to be sure, but not without interest.
Most of the use of wood is architectural and the buildings are small. They are fairly minimal, and that seems to be adequate. There is no snow-load to be concerned with, or freezing and thawing cycles. There usually are not even many glass windows.
The construction is usually stick framed and gable roofed. There isn’t necessarily a carefully measured increment to all the studs or rafters, and if the wood wasn’t long enough, another piece will be over-lapped and spliced on beside. Although there is a variety of conifer here on the beach, the wood that is used is hard and dark. There must be a bandsaw mill somewhere in the vicinity, but sometimes the wood is harvested very locally with the chainsaw being the only tool needed, both for felling and sawing out the boards. An electric handplane is used for dressing a face, if that is desired.
The buildings readily provide shelter from both the sun and the rain. They would need to be built much more sturdily to withstand the infrequent major storms, but it must make more sense to build for the most common scenario, which is not too threatening. Bad news will be dealt with if and when necessary.
IT’S OBVIOUS that there isn’t an enforced building code, with building inspectors and books of rules. Precedent supplies sufficient wisdom to do the job and you are qualified to do it if you think you are.
Although most buildings are similar, there is also an anarchic impulse that results in some very eccentric constructions. These are usually an assemblage of cast off and repurposed materials. No piece of wood is too small to be used. Rusted corrugated steel sheet is cut up and made into mosaics of wall panels. Whole buildings are built around a tree, with that bit of natural engineering providing the essential stability and geometry.
Steps are small and placed more for the convenience of the builder than the visitor. Handrails? Let the user beware.
CHEAP AND CHEERFUL. It’s quite a contrast to the highly regulated and controlled building that we have in our fat countries. Universal design is not a concept that has gotten any traction here. Developed as we are, we have become so prescribed and rule-bound that it now requires an exceptional effort of will to take on a building project. Of course, we have gained from this. Our society has as an objective that all of its citizens have as equal and as safe an opportunity as is possible. That doesn’t sound like a bad thing.
But the reality is that we pay a very high price for this. This cost is not only that borne by the builder directly in accommodation costs. There is also the massive bureaucracy behind it, with its inefficiencies, its entitlements and its pensions. Altogether, this is a crippling assault on industry, motivation and creativity.
It’s not so hard to imagine that our readiness to add rule to rule will bring us to a grinding standstill, out of options and out of money. How have we gotten to this state, where our impulses to do the right thing are so closely hounded as to almost keep us from doing anything? It’s a popular route to public office to rail against red tape. But where is the knife that actually cuts it? It doesn’t seem to exist, and the loud rhetoric is proven empty. It seems to be that our impulse to be correct has gotten in the way of our need to be smart.
Here in the hot sun, all that seems far away and even imaginary. This thin country is eager to be not quite as thin as it currently is and is following in many of the footsteps of more developed countries. But there may be a few of those footsteps that it will be wiser to sidestep.