Insights · 7 min read

The price of first trust: what a mirrored entrance taught us about supervision

A story from the first project of the studio — and the rule it left behind.

Our first project as an independent bureau was three four-storey buildings among sixteen-storey neighbours. The developer wanted only studios. We came back the next morning with a full concept — master plan, floor plans, facades, visualisations — and signed the contract that day.

On that site we learned that an architect's work does not end when the drawings are issued; it begins. We visited the site constantly, wrote up observations, argued about temporary props during concreting. Safety, we understood, cannot be delegated.

Then the mistake. During an internal check a colleague 'corrected' the axis labels on the master plan. Nobody noticed. Days later I was called to the site: reinforcement in place, mixers waiting — and the entrance group of the future building mirrored. Minutes from being cast in concrete forever.

We stopped the pour. The concrete went to another site, the cages were rebuilt, and our company covered every extra cost. Expensive — and far cheaper than a wrong building. Since then every change, however small, is re-checked by several specialists before release. That rule is still in force on every TVORZI project.