3 Technical definition of “making”

At each step in the unfolding, we see a certain state, and it is that state, together with the feedback we get from that state, which then allows us to shape the next items well. The material, its organization, the sequence of making and placing require that it be malleable, plastic, amenable to change, amenable to modification and refinement while the building evolves.
Making, then, is a theoretical idea. It has nothing to do with ancient craft. It is not a medieval concept of building production. It is a conception of the construction of a building which allows that the feedback, obtained constantly from the actions and experience of shaping the whole, provide feedback and guidance to the builders who then modify what they are shaping in accordance with the feedback just received.
In this definition of making, it is theoretically impossible for a successful building to be built from a set of drawings which specify every detail, because that would cripple the capacity of feedback to help shape the elements and details as they are built.
Making, in this technical definition, is necessary to the creation of living structure. I believe it is true to say that there can be no alternative to this fundamental rule.

#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/15 All Building as Making#