Ayumi Horie’s remark on her website about celebrating imperfection reminds me of Glen Murcutt’s tendency to celebrate the detail - especially details like scuppers that we architects sometimes would wish away.

That’s a trait that I appreciate - so in my work, try to see details as opportunities, to incorporate qualities like roundness rather than round - the little differences among handmade objects that makes them like without being identical, that makes them handmade rather than manufactured.

On a related note, I noted with some dismay that the latest CB2 catalog features a number of objects that are manufactured, but appear to be handmade. Some of them are pretty cool, but falter in the details. (Ceramicists, potters particularly, tend to treat the bottom of a piece with care, for example.) But every manufactured piece in a set is “imperfect” in the same way as the next. It’s just not the same. Celebrate the imperfection.

This will probably be only the beginning of the discussion. Please share your thoughts! This post was started mid-Aug 07 and finished and published on the date noted above.