The people who built the great cathedrals of the West lived in a world where science and technology were far behind ours. And yet they built monuments that still define our culture today. Out of deep care for their work, they organised it as a Bauhütte: a workshop at the foot of each cathedral, where master builders, masons and carpenters worked under one roof and shared responsibility for the whole building, from the first plan to the last stone.
At et labora, we believe that care is what gives a building its worth. The possibilities of our time should not free us from that care; they should let us give every building the care that once went into a cathedral. This belief is at the core of our work.
Our architects and engineers work at one table, so that a building is designed and its making thought through together, from the first conversation to the last joint. We develop our own methods for both. The machine takes on the heavy, repetitive labour, and people give their attention where it is needed: to judge, to fit, to finish. Like the masons, we keep the name of whoever made each part.