There is no place like home
The most frustrating thing about being an acoustician (for me) is the delay between you giving a recommendation to a client and the final result. This process typically takes several years. I have had many sleepless nights (metaphorically speaking) where I have thought about specific technical solutions like floor structures or junctions. And when I finally send my documents to be used for the construction of a building, that’s typically it. I never hear about it again, except for some control measurements at the building site in the best-case scenario. But I want to know how the final product turned out! Last week, I decided to do something about it and went on a road trip visiting eight of our dwelling projects.
It is usually a good thing if you don’t get feedback from your projects. With that I mean that you only get feedback when things have gone wrong, because those times you will hear about it. Silence on the other hand, is an indication that everything works. Field measurements are common, but it is not the same thing as visiting a building where real people live. That’s when I consider it a proper closure. Last Wednesday I had some field measurements booked in Arboga, but I realized that I now had a possibility to arrange a road trip with many site visits. I arranged with grandma so that my wife had some assistance with the kids and the dogs for the whole week and then I booked several extra hotel nights. I specified a list of eight dwelling projects around Stockholm +/- 3 hours and created waypoints on Google maps which I then played around with until I had found the optimal path, where I could cram as many site visits as possible in as few driven miles as possible.
I brought a system camera and a small drone for the job. With regards to the weather, it was jackpot. The whole week was perfect sunshine. I have really started to enjoy photography and have learned quite a lot from my video production as many skill sets are analogous. But my experience with capturing buildings on pictures is rather limited. The most important lesson from my trip, is that next time I need to pay attention to the position of the sun with regards to the building. Daylight isn’t everything, but the direction of the light is equally important. I think Google Earth can be a good help here. With it, you can change the position of the sun to get an indication on what time of day you should visit a specific project to get the sun behind you when you photograph the façade you are interested in. Usually this would mean the front side, because I felt that there are some privacy aspects when taking photographs from the rear of the building. That side usually has balconies, and it can feel as if you are a sneaky voyeur, if the distance is too short. Anyway, the result was decent, and you will see the results at our project portfolio on acouwood.com in the coming days.
When I had finished the photo session on the eighth and final project, I had a dinner at a restaurant that I had also been involved with. The experience of this whole road trip was fantastic and I would highly recommend any of my fellow acousticians (or civil engineers in general) to do the same thing as soon as you have the possibility. It really helps the understanding and gut feeling for what is right or not. There is always a risk that we aim too high and over-dimension the constructions wasting unnecessary time and resources. Site visits at finalized buildings will provide better understanding of where you should focus your energy for the best results.
The clock was now around 18:00 on Thursday evening and I pulled the gear lever into Drive mode and headed North. Going home to my wife and kids. When road tripping, I strongly dislike too much planning. I’d rather just drive in my general direction and when I feel tired, or satisfied or both, I look for a hotel sign and stop. I was feeling fantastic so I decided to aim for Gävle, which is a good place to spend the night. But when I got there, I still felt fantastic, and I was extremely home-sick so I decided to push on. The traffic was very light, I was listening to a very interesting audiobook and my mind felt sharp as ever so I just kept on driving. In Sundsvall I stopped for gas, coffee and a sandwich and soldiered on. It was the most enjoyable drive from Stockholm I have ever had honestly, and I have lost count of them long time ago. I parked my car on my driveway at 03:00. I knew that if I would enter the house, my two Labradors would go crazy because the had missed me so much and wake everyone up. And even if I managed to go to sleep, my kids would wake me up around 06:00 anyway so I would be a zombie the next day. But there was a very simple solution. I went into my garage, pulled out my old sleeping bad and an old mattress, found two throw cushions in a plastic bag, and then inaugurated the workshop as an emergency guest house. The silence was deafening, no kids, dogs or installation noise at all. I slept like a little baby until 09:00 and felt just as great as the day before.
There is no place like home. A sleeping bag on the garage floor easily beats any hotel bed. I suspect most people who travel a lot professionally would agree with me.