A restaurant of a well-known chain is being built. It’s a standard project, practically a construction kit. Welding and concrete are only present in the foundation. The rest consists of a prefabricated frame made of galvanized steel channels, bolted together, with wooden trusses made of laminated timber. The walls are made of foam concrete, with an exterior layer and insulation (sandwich panels with foil-polystyrene-foil). The roof consists of plywood blocks with insulation, followed by waterproofing.
At 6 AM, the construction site is empty. There’s no one around. Then people start to arrive. The entire site is divided among small contractors. Some are laying walls, some are installing air conditioners. Others are working on ventilation, roofing, or doing earthworks around the restaurant. Some are setting up drainage systems, while others are bringing in a large generator and fueling it with diesel. Some are dealing with trash, some with toilets, and some with drinking water. Everyone has their blueprints. Each person’s task is to complete their work with millimeter precision. The small firms and teams consist of 2 to 8 people. They all arrive in their own cargo vans, sporting their company logos and bringing their own equipment and tools. Each team has their own extension cords with four outlets. From these extension cords, a web of wires forms so that within 20 minutes, there’s an outlet available at any point on the site. Someone brought a radio designed like a construction tool—protected from falls and in a tubular frame. Music is playing. Everyone is working. They’re not working in sync, without a supervisor overseeing them, and there’s no frantic pace. There’s just a blueprint and a deadline. That’s it.
By evening, the anthill dissolves in the same way. Everyone gathers, takes their tools, scaffolding, and ladders with them. They roll up the extension cords, and the construction site empties out again. It empties out so much that there’s nothing left to guard. Yes, there is security, but they don’t enter the construction site; they sit in a container, where a mast with floodlights is mounted, outside the perimeter.
Our task is to install the kitchen ventilation. Two ducts will go up to the roof. Up there, it’s beautiful, warm, and windy. Birds are flying. No, not birds, but a couple of military planes. They zoomed by beautifully. Two ducts are coming down from the roof to collect the dirty air from the kitchen and the living room. We need to install several air intakes, valves, and access panels on them. Assemble, insulate, hang, and check the dimensions. It’s a two-day job, so I’ll be going back tomorrow as well.