How this site is made

Light pages

Every page here is a plain file. There is no database, no tracking script, no cookie and no advertising. The weight of each page is printed in its footer.

Honest materials

The collages are cut from real things: joinery manuals of the 1700s, a house catalog from 1908, survey photographs and botanical plates. All are in the public domain or released for free use by the institutions that hold them. No image on this site was made by AI. The hummingbird in our mark is drawn by hand.

The pieces, and where each came from:

Apple, USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection — J. F. Brewer, 1910. Public domain. Source
Balloon frame, with good and poor practice marked — Unknown illustrator, early 20th century. Public domain. Source
Cabbage rose (Rosa centifolia simplex) (Cleveland Museum of Art) — Henry Joseph Redouté, 1817–1824. CC0. Source
Empire State Building workers (Metropolitan Museum of Art) — Lewis Hine, 1930s. CC0. Source
Ferns, specimen of cyanotype (National Gallery of Art) — Anna Atkins, 1840s. CC0. Source
Hummingbirds, from A Monograph of the Trochilidae, vol. 3 — John Gould and Henry Constantine Richter, 1861. Public domain. Source
Joiner's tools, L'Art du Menuisier, plate 12 — André Jacob Roubo, 1769. Public domain. Source
Joiner's tools, L'Art du Menuisier, plate 15 — André Jacob Roubo, 1769. Public domain. Source
Joiners at the bench, from L'Art du Menuisier — André Jacob Roubo, 1774. Public domain. Source
Joinery, L'Art du Menuisier, plate 21 — André Jacob Roubo, 1769. Public domain. Source
Old Bricklayer (Metropolitan Museum of Art) — Anne Claude Philippe, comte de Caylus, 1737. CC0. Source
Old-timer, structural worker, Empire State Building — Lewis Hine, 1930. Public domain. Source
Plate from the Cyclopedia of Architecture, Carpentry and Building — American Technical Society, 1912. No restrictions. Source
Pointing hand (manicule), printer's ornament — Unknown artist, about 1900. Public domain. Source
Power house mechanic working on steam pump — Lewis Hine, 1920. Public domain. Source
Sears Modern Home No. 111, catalog page — Sears, Roebuck & Co., 1908. Public domain. Source
Square-drive screw and screwdriver, patent illustration — Peter L. Robertson, Library and Archives Canada, 1909. Public domain. Source
Strelic Residence, Seattle, elevation view (Historic American Buildings Survey WA-241) — John Stamets, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress. Public domain. Source
Strelic Residence, Seattle, oblique view (Historic American Buildings Survey WA-241) — John Stamets, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress. Public domain. Source
The planet Saturn, astronomical drawing — Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, 1874. Public domain. Source
Timber house frame, from Mechanick Exercises — Joseph Moxon, 1703. Public domain. Source
Title page and timber frame, Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works — Joseph Moxon, 1694. Public domain. Source
Viridian Metaltail (Metallura williami), from A Monograph of the Trochilidae, vol. 3 — John Gould and Henry Constantine Richter, 1861. Public domain. Source
Wood joints, from the Teacher's Handbook of Slöjd — Otto Salomon, Teacher's Handbook of Slöjd, 1900. No restrictions. Source
Wood joints, from the Teacher's Handbook of Slöjd — Otto Salomon, Teacher's Handbook of Slöjd, 1900. No restrictions. Source

How AI is used

We use AI to gather and draft the weekly Site Walk and to help draft field notes from our own working papers and detail guides. Nothing is published until a named person has read it, corrected it and approved it. Each piece says how it was made, and each factual claim links to a source you can check.

Free to reuse

Words on this site are free to copy, adapt and build on, as long as you credit Viridian Builds and share what you make the same way. The license is CC BY-SA 4.0.

A family of two

This site shares its design and its tools with Studio Viridian, the design side of the same practice.

Mistakes

When we get something wrong, we fix it and record the change on the corrections page.