Little things that matter

Abstract

Practice for us began with a series of near dilapidated cottages in East Anglia which were to be renovated with the help of a housing improvement grant and much labour from the clients and sometimes even the architects. This must have appealed to the officer who handed out the grants as whenever anyone arrived at his door with a cottage that had a demolition order on it they were sent to us. To aid this practice we soon purchased a copy of Handisyde's Everyday Details. With all respect to Handisyde, the most memorable image to come out of this book was a drawing of a thatched dovecote made from an old barrel. This drawing, in the Foreword, was attributed to Edwin Gunn, the author of Little Things that Matter forthose Who Build, published by The Architectural Press in 1923. Gunn's book had been the inspiration for the new Everyday Details.