The original note, as written at the time
Whenever you can spend money on quality space do. All our problems and opportunities happen in space.
Ongoing development
Whenever you can spend money on quality space, do. All our problems and opportunities happen in space.
It is a simple instruction and it quietly overrules a great deal of standard practice. Money goes to finishes, to specifications, to the things that can be itemised and pointed at. Space is not itemisable. A generous corridor, a room with the right proportion, a metre of clearance that nobody asked for — these are the first things cut in a value-engineering exercise and the last things anyone notices, and they are what a building actually is.
The reason to spend there is that space is the only part of the building everyone experiences. Nobody will remember the tile. Everybody will remember whether the room felt mean.
So when the budget conversation comes round and the decision is between a better surface and a better volume, the answer is the volume, every time, even though the surface is what the client can see in the drawing. That is the judgement a professional is for.