As children, we were better at all things important.

Making up games, expressing love, and remaining present all happened without a forced hand. So did making forts.

Some of the couch-cushion forts my brothers and I made had tunnel networks that rivalled the Catacombs in Rome. I'm pretty sure one of them even connected with my friends basement 1 street over.

Showing them off to our parents posed its problems. We often forgot to size our hallways and "kitchens" to full-grown bodies, so they'd end up peering in through a door or lifting up a roof panel.

That's right, we had modular construction before modular construction.

Bedrooms doubled as living rooms, play rooms were a necessary part of the floor plan, and your room was always close to your friends. We were better designers at 6.

Growing up meant inheriting the burden of knowledge. Learning how things are supposed to be done meant less mind space for nothing at all—the best space to create from.

Thankfully, there is some adult mental blubber than can get you close to where you started. It's called first principles thinking.

You start by discarding all notion of how the problem has been solved in the past, then approach it with only what you know to be absolutely true.

In designing our 2nd tiny house model, I saw this kind of thinking from my co-founder Oliver.

We were discussing interior trim around doors. I bought historical knowledge of how it's done: white trim that's wider along the top of the door than it is on the side. Oliver, who's background is in finance, asked why we need trim at all?

I felt my mind contorting as I couldn't come up with a better answer than "it's just how you do it". Good god; I'm a sheep. 

As you're looking to redesign your room or play around with different furniture layouts this weekend, throw away everything you know about how homes are typically designed.

Maybe, you'll come up with a better fort.

🏡 The Treetops

This is a new section that I'm introducing to showcase backyard architecture worth sharing.

I'll seed it with the home that inspired me to go into architecture: Mike Basich's tiny house on a hill.

I love how personalized it is.

• The floorplan is a pentagon that is a scaled up version of his own dimensions in a Vitruvian Man pose.

• The rocks that make up the walls and shower were carried up from the bottom of the hill that the house is perched upon.

• On his birthday, at the time he was born, a star that's pasted on the window casts a shadow into the exact centre of the house.

I mean, c'mon. That's so sick.

Reply with your favourite backyard architecture and I'll feature it in an upcoming issue. I'd also love to see if any of you have built something with the Common Cave plans!

📣 Share Backyard Architect

Share this newsletter with your friends, colleagues, and cool neighbours.

📬 The Mailbox

Catch you next Thursday 🫡