Team Building

How do you even begin to go about creating a building? I mean, presumably you start with the relevant training and experience in construction, and ideally an architectural plan that tells you what goes where. It’s not like you just wake up one day and know how to do it, but even so, I still find it quite astonishing.

What about the materials? Where do they come from, and how do they end up on a given building site? There are so many logistical factors involved. Judging the amount of construction going on at the moment, there must be a number of steel suppliers close to Melbourne, and I guess if you’re in the construction industry you just have that information. I guess it’s not necessarily more complex than, say, ordering printer cartridges for an office, but it seems like it should be because the materials in question are… well, bigger. 

I probably sound like a completely muggle to anyone who works in construction, going on like this. I’m just trying to convey my admiration for this field that I know nothing about, and the wonderful mystery of how it all works. If there are any steel fabricators of Melbourne reading this, please know that I have the highest respect for your work, along with very little wherewithal to figure out the nuts and bolts of it.

While it does seem like a black box to me, I guess I do understand the secret when I really think about it. It’s basically a team effort. There probably aren’t that many people in the world who are experts in metal fabrication, construction, architecture, project management, carpentry, installing fittings and finishes, and all the rest of it. There could be a freakishly skilled few out there, but I’d wager they’re not going around single-handedly piecing together buildings commercially. They’d at least have a team of underlings helping them out. Surely.

If it turned out I was wrong about that, I’d feel massively incompetent.