These past four months, I have been focused on the renovation of our Vermont home. I designed and built the home in 1985 and with our move from St. Louis to Boston and Vermont, it was time for a bit of a rehab. We started the first of June and two weeks ago, on September 27th, we moved our furniture in. Today, I’m sitting in St. Louis, helping The St. Michael School compose an iBook that tells the story of a year-long project of two years ago. The two projects, one on a house and the other based on a curriculum, involve a remarkably similar process of deconstruction, design and reconstruction.

In Vermont, Louise and I started here:

Our first step was deconstruction.

Then we designed what we wanted, in this instance a screen porch and fireplace on the west wall...and reconstruction began.

We went through the same process with the kitchen, study, master bedroom and bath, guest bedrooms and bath, and landscaping. It was an exhilarating, tedious, sweaty, frustrating, long, relentless, creative and ultimately fulfilling process.

The same is true with The St. Michael School iBook. We started more than a year ago. First we deconstructed the entire year’s work of 2010-2011... all the different experiences and projects of the students (ages 3 to 12) focused on the central question: What are the relationships between animals and humans?

With all the data gathered before us, we designed and installed an exhibition of their work in the central areas of the school. Here are two sections of the exhibition.

Now, we have decided to recompose the exhibition in an iBook. Standby. We hope to have the first draft completed by the end of next week...and, if all goes well (which, if it’s like any construction project I’ve ever been involved in...it will...in time....) it will be up for all to see by the end of the month. As I said, standby, as we enjoy (with a bit of breathing and smiling at key junctions) the process of deconstruction, design and reconstruction.