Document: Mhairi McVicar

To be published in Quality Out of Control, Allison Dutoit, Juliet Odgers, Adam Sharr (editors), Routledge (pending)

PASSION AND CONTROL: SIGURD LEWERENTZ AND A MORTAR JOINT

The mortar joints at Lewerentz' St Peters Church, Klippan push standard tolerances of dimensioning to extremes; subsuming the bricks, the mortar joints here become a primary material. That this is permitted testifies to a level of trust and engagement between architect and builder.

The extraordinary qualities evidenced in the mortar joints at St Peters begin with the tolerance of risk; uncertainty as negotiated on a daily basis within conversations between architect and builder. Whilst the legalities, economies and complexities of current architectural practice rarely permit the risks celebrated at St Peters, it is significant that the practices of Quality Control promise, at best, a quality of averages. A quality of extremities - an extraordinary quality - arises from a different viewpoint altogether.

Photo credit: St Peters Church, Klippan, Sweden. Architect Sigurd Lewerentz. Photo: Mhairi McVicar.