S-001 · THE ATELIER
Eleven people. One bench.
Ashlar is a small atelier of builders, joiners and architects working from one yard in Gloucestershire. The people who draw your house are the people who build it — there is no handover, because there is no gap.
4JOINERS
2STONEMASONS
2ARCHITECTS
1GLAZIER
1APPRENTICE
+EDITH
THE BENCH — TUESDAY, 07:40
FIRST LIGHT ON THE PLANEPRINCIPLE 01
MEASURE THE SECOND TIME
The first measurement is a guess wearing a tape. Everything we cut, we cut once — because we measured twice, a week apart, in different weather.
PRINCIPLE 02
SAY NO EARLY
Most bad houses are a hundred small yeses. We would rather lose a client in week two than an argument in week eighty.
PRINCIPLE 03
LEAVE IT BETTER THAN DRAWN
The drawing is a promise, not a ceiling. When the timber teaches us something on the bench, the house gets the better version and the sheet gets a revision.
“If a detail is wrong at ten metres, it is wrong. The client may never see it. The house knows.”
EDITH MARSH — FOUNDER, MASTER JOINER · AT THE BENCH SINCE 1989
THE YARD AT KINGSHOLT — 26 MONTHS OF OAK, SLEEPINGLICENSED DESIGN–BUILD CONTRACTOR · REG. NO. 048-221FEDERATION OF MASTER BUILDERSGUILD OF ARCHITECTURAL JOINERSFULLY INSURED TO £10M
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