Last week I found myself standing at the bottom of a large clay hole. It will become a natural swimming pool very shortly but at that moment, last Monday as the dusk slowly settled in around us, it was a big, deep (nearly 3.5m) clayey hole in the ground with a bit of concrete here and there.

It was all too familiar though, having spent a few days whipping it up in Sketch Up Pro (not all that different from the free version but you can import .dwg files, so handy for that!) and flipping it about in 3D in fact the hole felt much more familiar than one might imagine, and in fact it makes it quite easy to spot mistakes.

I know being a designer I am meant to be able to ‘read’ plan views back to front and any which way in between but I am new to it so give me a break!

My first 3D hole in the ground. A happy moment. So far, one of many.