Musings on our role as an architect's client ...

When Viktoria was a child, there was a new house built near where she lived. For some reason, she would rather cross the road than walk past it. Whereas a 1950's bungalow a few doors down, complete with faded tyre-swans and pastel mint paint, exuded a simple happiness from its fibro roof to its kitch iron gate.
Is a building's 'personality' formed like a collage from the lives of previous residents, or is something within the fabric of the structure itself?
When a building is abandoned, a sadness bleeds through. A longing for the passage of footsteps in halls, voices in rooms.

As we undertake this journey, we have been reflecting on the role each person plays in bringing our own particular building into existence. Especially, what is the real role of the client... of us?
The architect is the scientist-alchemist who samples the DNA of the landscape, translates the cuneiform of the environment. Blending and extracting the wishes of the client.
The builders, plumbers, electricians, carpenters and block layers assemble the skeleton, adding flesh. Pipes and conduits form arteries and intestines.
And what is the role of the client, the resident?
We think our role only truly comes into being once everyone else has parted... with Frankensteinean spark, we think it's our role to bring the building to life.
To make the house, our home.
V&A