Common Sense

Craft is, basically, common sense. Ingenuity is certainly a factor (anyway, it’s a close relative of common sense, fully complementary). Following a simple procedure, perhaps repeatedly, requires a basic degree of attention combined with a clear understanding of the process, perhaps with reference to the first face of tradition—an accepted process, the way it’s been done (successfully) before.[1] Many of the tasks involved in building a house occur at this level, requiring basic attention and this simplest form of common sense.

Even the simplest procedures, though, demand a bit more ingenuity: knowing when to stop adding water to the concrete mix, for example, or determining how much of that mix will be needed to fill the forms. These are also matters of common sense, with a bit of calculation and a notion, from experience, of what’s workable. Ahead of mixing the concrete, though, determining the dimensions the formwork needs to have, building and bracing the forms, installing rebar and presetting foundation bolts, all require careful calculation in addition to an understanding of the loadbearing requirements—again, based on experience and knowledge, both of yours and of others (structural engineers and building inspectors, for example), thorough familiarity with building codes and safety considerations.

These are all, in fact, further refinements of common sense.

Ecology is common sense. It is self-evident that one thing influences another, that no being exists separately from another in any definite sense, that interrelated systems are interwoven with other interrelated systems. Plants draw energy from the sun and carbon dioxide from the air to produce sugar and oxygen that animals eat and breathe. Bacteria and fungus feed on decaying plants and animals to replenish the soil. Life is intricately bound in other life. It is self-evident, to anyone paying attention, that disruptions of ecological balance are only self-correcting to a point, before leading to further disruptions. An aesthetic that values common sense will recognize the importance of reducing our disruptive impact, of implementing our craft to the best of our understanding.