Architecture Is in the Relationships

We often say, “God is in the detail.”

In architecture, this is usually understood to mean construction details—junctions, finishes, tolerances, and the physical assembly of components. However, over time, I’ve come to realise that this saying extends far beyond technical drawings.

In practice, “the detail” is not only in concrete, steel, and timber.

It is in relationships.

Architecture is held together by people long before it is held together by concrete.

Every project is a network of relationships: between the client and the architect, the architect and the consultants, the consultants and the builders, the builder and the budget, and ultimately between the building and the people who will live in it. When these relationships are healthy, projects can survive difficulty. When they break down, even the best ideas can fail.

In many ways, architecture is not primarily a design profession. It is a profession of coordination and responsibility.

We like to believe that good buildings come from good ideas. And they do. But they only become real through communication, trust, negotiation, and countless small decisions made between people who depend on one another.

I’ve seen firsthand how fragile this can be.

We worked on a project with a strong concept and a strong consulting team. We developed it through working drawings. However, due to municipal delays and approval processes, timelines began to slip. Tender dates were affected. Uncertainty crept in.

Naturally, the client began asking questions: about time, about cost, about risk.

And slowly, trust began to erode.

Although the design was solid and the team was capable, the relationship could not withstand the pressure. Eventually, the client lost confidence in us as professionals, and the project was cancelled. Not because the idea was bad, but because the relationship could no longer hold the weight of the process.

I’ve also seen the opposite.

Another project involved a client from another country building a home in South Africa. From the start, there was an extraordinary level of trust. She entrusted us not only with the design but also with the entire process, including the management of payments to contractors and consultants on her behalf.

The project still had delays. There were still challenges. No project is ever truly smooth.

But the relationship held.

And when she finally walked into her completed home, she stood there in tears and said:

“It’s more than I ever could have dreamed of. Thank you.”

That moment had very little to do with drawings.

It had everything to do with trust.

This is when I really understood that an architect is not just a designer.

An architect is a connector.

A translator.

A steward of relationships.

In many ways, it’s similar to what a doctor does. A doctor doesn’t just perform surgery. They coordinate care. They interpret information. They guide decisions. They carry responsibility across many moving parts. The architect does the same, except the patient is a building, and the stakes are time, money, safety, and people’s lives.

Architecture demands humility because no one person can carry it alone.

University teaches us how to think.

Practice teaches us how to work with people.

It teaches us that budgets are not enemies of design; they are integral to it. That clients are not obstacles; they are partners. That builders are not executors; they are collaborators. And that ego is one of the fastest ways to break a project.

Good architecture is not about control.

It concerns maintaining multiple relationships in the service of a single idea.

When those relationships are strong, a project can survive almost anything.

When they are weak, even the best architecture never gets the chance to exist.

So yes — God is in the detail.

But in architecture, those details are very often human.

And that’s where the real work is.