SKILLS ON THE GROUND LEVEL
21 May 2024
I spent hours in Apple store to make then them connect my latest iPhone to my car Bluetooth. Finally, the technician who could manage to reload the software and achieve success in doing this work as a young person with B.Com. degree and a self-taught technician. I was so impressed by the way he approached the problem and manage to deal with this problem which even his seniors could not handle.
I see this pattern very often on our sites. We designers have lot of respect for the good contractors and crafts people and also the simple laborers on site. These are our valuable force who bring shape to our vision.
A bad team on the site can mar the design and leave bad finishing on the site. Most times a badly done job is impossible to rectify and the process of demolishing that and re building is very painful, expensive in terms of time, energy and money.
We insist on becoming a part of the contractor selection process for this reason.
Any project is a team effort and that each person is dependent on others performance.
Most people working on the ground level in India are not qualified on paper but learn on site. So mistakes happen and the supporting member of the group hand holds this person to get a good result. We too learn in the process how and where these mistakes happen and end up learning at the site. That is the reason site experience in our field is crucial.
I tell my studio team all the time that the drawings sent by us are read by the workers who have never been to design school and will read it like a layman. So instead of following the rules of TRD taught in schools please follow a logic and make them in a way that anyone can understand.
Interestingly we tend to find few souls on the site who also develop a sense of proportions and aesthetics and give us their inputs. We are happy to listen to them and try and understand their point of few. These suggestions are surely welcomed where technical issues are concerned. The workers are better equipped to handle the technicality of the material then us and also the material suppliers.
This write up is to appreciate our crafts people and contractors who become a part of your team later. I cannot but mention all the unskilled women laborers who carry material on site in the worst working conditions. Most times there are no toilets, their children are playing with sand and cement or sleeping in a temporary cradle. Kudos to this work force.
We are very strict about following rules of no child labor and ask for better and safe facilities on the site.