How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built

by Stewart Brand

John Abrams, the design/builder in Massachusetts, discovered that his business was being hurt by new-building problems on the far side of the “occupancy” barrier. “We would have these terrific relationships with clients,” he recalls, “and then all of a sudden they’d start to deteriorate right after the completion of a building, due to very minor problems. My thinking always was, we’ve been on this grand excursion with these people, and we’ve done such a great job, and we love them and they love us; these little things don’t matter that much. Well, they turned out to matter a lot. “After seeing this for a while and seeing that it was fundamental, we hired someone just to handle those problems—a full-time handyman for our clients. He does nothing but adjust, repair, and maintain, and he’s always available in a day or two. We never question whether a problem is our fault or their fault or anybody’s fault. It’s something that’s wrong with the building, and it has to be dealt with immediately! We don’t bill for much of his time. We believe it’s our duty in building a building that it should work well for twenty-five or fifty years. We’re trying to make a building that doesn’t need his time, and whatever time of his it needs is our responsibility. That completely changed how our relationships with our clients endure. When they eventually want to improve or change the building, they come back to us. That’s where a lot of our work is now.”9