“It’s a crisis,” says Marianne Sühr, co-ordinator of the Building Skills Action Group, a Construction Industry Training Board-funded organisation trying to tackle the problem. “A craftsperson is someone who is not just skilled but is conscientious about their work. But today we have so many cowboy builders who just don’t give a damn; they don’t care. There’s no pride in the work.”
Sühr believes that the disappearance of the apprenticeship system and the changing aspirations of young people are behind the crisis. “Apprenticeship went hand in hand with the class system. Most working class people had to follow in their fathers’ footsteps; if you were talented, you’d strive to be the best in your craft.”
These days, building colleges are full of underachievers, Sühr continues. “It’s become a last-resort profession – people who would have been labourers have been elevated to bricklayers. Technical colleges are teaching people basic maths. How can you set out a building if you can’t do multiplication?”
Architects say the lack of craftspeople with adequate skills, design awareness and enthusiasm for the job is making it increasingly difficult for them to get projects built to the required standard. “It’s sad, but I’ve found it easier to get things made abroad,” says architect John Pawson. “I go to little companies in Italy and Belgium. In England there seems to be a lack of willingness to make one-offs.”
It seems the architect-craftsperson relationship – once central to the building process and glorified in William Morris’ Arts and Crafts Movement – is all but gone. “Lots of builders moan about design because they don’t understand new ideas, and they think it’s going to be too complicated,” agrees architect Sarah Wigglesworth. “You need to do lots of goading and coaxing.”
Yet, somehow, remarkable new buildings are still being built around the country; structures that are modern in spirit, yet display the same mastery of materials and loving attention to detail as that exhibited in the finest historic buildings.
Building set out to discover the uncredited individuals behind some of these buildings. We asked contemporary architects to nominate those who live up to their definition of a craftsperson – highly skilled, conscientious and intuitive – and visited those individuals to record their views on the industry and the future of their skills. Their stories, presented over the next 10 pages, provide a snapshot of the state of the building crafts in Britain today.
John Hall, 52, master thatcher from Sussex. Photographed at work rethatching a school building near Uckfield in Sussex.
He really is a stunning craftsman; his work was superb when we were building a Japanese-style thatched roof on the Pool House at Pulborough, near Arundel. Plus, he’s got a moustache that looks like thatch.
Koyodi Lipedi, 40, from Nigeria, concrete caster. Photographed at work on private domestic commission in Hampstead, London.
We did a project with Koyodi a couple of years ago; he did an insitu bathroom floor and kitchen work surface. He spent ages getting the surface perfect. His level of finishing is spot-on; his attention to detail is great. He’ll provide a lot of samples and he’s willing to try new things.
Clive Williams, 52, from London, all-round maker. Photographed at the workshop of his firm, Forum Makers, in Islington, north London.
Clive’s great. He’s the kind of person you’d have in the engine room on the USS Enterprise; he’d give a sharp intake of breath and say it wasn’t possible and then do it. When he makes a promise, he’ll deliver. He built the Kielder shelter for us – a small, unconventional structure fabricated in stainless steel. He has a very good level of finish and he’s used to ridiculous deadlines.
Michael McHugh, 52, from Tasmania, joiner. Photographed at Westside Design Studio, his workshop in Bath.
We’ve always used him. He’s extremely fastidious; he always has a solution. If you send him a set of drawings, it always comes back looking better than expected. Most recently he built the canopy for our bandstand at Bexhill-on-Sea. He was the hero of the piece – it was a highly complex shape and he worked out how to build it.
Dave Church, 53, from Canvey Island, Essex and Ken Rose, 61, from Molesford, Suffolk, restorers. Photographed on a job in Kilburn, London.
We were building the new library and refectory building at Southwark cathedral and they were recommended to us. They were brilliant because they responded not just to the materials, but to the spirit of the materials. What was exceptional about them is they were a pleasure to work with – always happy and jolly – and they were proud of what they did.
Craftspeople
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