Limitations

Limitations

My current project started with a blueprint, carefully designed by a team of landscape architects and designers. They’ve created a plan that is both beautiful and functional. The water flows away from the house. The top of the stone stairs aligns perfectly with the pool deck. Every detail, from the height and depth of the walls I’m building to their starting and ending points, has been thought through. Nothing in the plans is arbitrary.

My role, as I see it, is to build within the parameters of these plans while still making the work my own. The constraints of the design are useful limitations. Instead of bristling against them, I can, like a writer working within the confines of a genre, use them to push myself creatively. My job is to bring the designer’s vision to life while leaving my own fingerprints on the project.

This is what collaboration should feel like—a shared effort where creativity flows between people.

Yes, I’m following a plan, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for creativity. It doesn’t mean the final result is predetermined. Far from it. If you gave a hundred wallers the same blueprint and the same pile of stones, you’d get a hundred different walls. Each one would reflect the instincts, quirks, and style of its builder.

My job is to stay true to mine. To bring these blueprints into the world while trusting my intuition and tastes.