What if breaking through isn’t about being first or loud? What if it’s about seeing something that has gone unnoticed and taking the time to have a good long stare at it?
Take trusses – they have been around for thousands of years, modern plate connected trusses came about in the 1950s, yet the Poche truss was awarded a USPTO patent in 2025. This truss frame came about from my pivot away from big custom houses to small houses and the relentless sketching of small buildings that followed as I searched for the key to customizing shape without the complexity of framing. I like intelligent buildings that respond to their circumstances, a lot. A perfect storm took shape as my love of trusses entered the sketching delirium. IT showed up as a wobbly structure being pushed and pulled. Once seen, it became undeniable.
Part One: when the patented Poche went onto its first jobsite and I watched it disappear into the hands of people who build, I was stunned. Something unexpected happened. I saw that this new way to build was not a novelty. They got it, those framers just picked up the trusses and built, as they had thousands of times before. It was elegant, it was beautiful. It was undeniable. It was intelligence made visible. Those framers understood it immediately because it made sense. Poche got the quiet nod from someone who hadn’t needed to sketch it for the umpteenth time to know.
That moment shifted something in me. So maybe the question isn’t: “Is this new?” but rather: “What does it expose that had been unseen?”