Water, water everywhere

For the Chinese, water is a symbol of Life and Wealth - as such - money is sometimes referred to as 'water' in casual conversation. So when it rained continuously at the beginning of this year; it was thought to be a good sign as this is also the year of the Water Dragon.

We knew that our office was in a flood prone area; that's why we raised the new floor level by a foot. However, we were still unprepared for the flash flood that took place that morning; 6 inches of water came into the studio in half an hour - CPUs died, books drowned and ink-lines washed away.

There are always good things that come out of 'bad' - in this case, we discovered that we have several strong leaders in the office; efficiently and calmly coordinating the clean up, re-instating a sense of order and purpose.

Sofia with her head in her hands

The spring cleaning was premature but it forced us to take stock and part with 'precious' things collected over the years. I had to throw out a thick stack of butter paper sketches, actually I had someone discard them for me. I did not have the heart to do it. 

New beginnings are better with an uncluttered desk.

Ar Arl meets iPod in the middle

Arlene the architect and iPod the dog share a moment in the middle of the work day; iPod has only three legs. Her full name is tripod, but we felt the iPod is more 'current' and rolls off the tongue more easily. iPod shares her i-pad at DNAhouse with Toffee
Toffee attempting to blur the boundary between inside and outside.