FIA Journal
How do you know when a set of details, a drawing, or a piece of writing is actually finished?
I still don't have a clean answer to that, and my laptop is still full of files called "final," "final v2," and "ok this one is actually final."
Hello, I hope you're well! This one's been on my mind for a while. I touched on it briefly in the June newsletter, when I wrote about the House Extension Details book and how hard it was to know when it was truly finished. I enjoyed that little tangent so much I thought it deserved a proper email of its own, because I don't think it's just a book problem. I think it's the thing quietly running underneath a lot of the second-guessing that comes with both design and technical work.
How I Know When Something Is Actually Finished
With the book, there was always another note we could add, another condition we could explain, another detail we could include. Aida and I could have kept tweaking one more thing until we both retired.
That feeling doesn't really go away once you're properly into a project, either. If anything, it gets louder, because the more you understand something, the more you can see everything you haven't covered yet. Knowledge is a bit of a double agent that way.
For a long time, I thought that feeling meant I hadn't finished. These days I think it usually means something a bit more encouraging. It means I understand the subject well enough to see its edges, which is a completely different thing from being wrong.
Here's what I actually check now, when I need to decide if something is properly done:
- Every open question has an answer, even if that answer is "we're following current best practice and will update this if guidance changes."
- Nothing is missing, only refined.
- The core brief, the actual question someone needed answered, is properly resolved.
- Any further changes I could make are about preference, not correctness.
- If someone challenged a decision, I could explain exactly why I made it, ideally without breaking eye contact.
If all of that is true, it's finished. Not perfect. Finished. Those are doing very different jobs.
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Perfect isn't a real standard, it's a moving target...
That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should, especially if you're early in your career and every drawing feels like it's being marked. Perfect isn't a real standard, it's a moving target that gets further away the more you learn, which is a fairly rubbish way to grade yourself. Finished is something you can actually reach, again and again, project after project.
What I've Been Working On
Behind the scenes this month, most of my time has gone into research rather than writing. Research is genuinely one of my favourite parts of running this business, there's something satisfying about properly getting to grips with a topic before we ever put pen to paper on it.
I've been deep in what the Future Homes Standard will actually mean for First In Architecture and the Detail Library, what we'll need to update, and how we can explain the changes to you clearly before they land rather than scrambling after. If I'm honest, that research doesn't feel finished either. Some of it is still moving, and at some point I'll simply have to publish what we know and accept it might need revising shortly after. Which, funnily enough, is exactly the thing I've just spent several hundred words telling you is fine.
Alongside that, I've spent a couple of happy afternoons in SketchUp, rendering different solar shading devices for an upcoming Detail Library piece and testing sun angles and shadow studies to properly understand how each one performs. There's something genuinely calm, almost zen-like, about losing an afternoon to shifting sun angles and watching shadows fall into place on a model.
WHAT'S NEW AT FIRST IN ARCHITECTURE
In Case You Missed It
A few things we've published since the last email, worth a look if any of them catch your eye:
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Architectural Elevation Checklist
A practical checklist covering the key elements to include on architectural elevations, helping you produce clearer, more coordinated drawings for planning, building regulations and construction.
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What Is A Passivhaus?
An easy-to-follow introduction to the Passivhaus standard, explaining how it works and why it has become a benchmark for low-energy building design.
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New Details
This month's Detail Library update focuses on solar shading strategies for residential windows. The set includes fixed solar fins, brise soleil, roller shutters and lifting folding timber shutters.
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A Quiet Reminder
There's a point on every project where more tweaking stops making the work better and just makes you feel safer. Finished doesn't mean perfect. It means you've done the work honestly, checked it properly, and you're willing to stand behind it. That's genuinely enough, and it's worth believing that more often than you probably do.
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Thank you for being here and taking the time to read, we really appreciate your support. Wishing you a great start to the month ahead.
All the best,
Emma
First In Architecture
P.S. If you've got a moment, hit reply and tell me how you know when something's actually done. I'd love to know I'm not the only one still working this out, even after all these years.
