Why a wall chart still hangs in some Tbilisi boardrooms

We are sometimes asked to print a plate the size of a window. Not often. When it happens, it is usually a family office that sits twelve people around a table and does not want the occupancy argument to depend on whoever holds the laptop.

A wall chart of occupancy by floor, with vacant units the colour of the paper, can be stood in front of and pointed at. A lease calendar at that size is rarer; the dates get small. Arrears almost never belong on a wall — they are names, and names on a wall in a building with a caretaker who talks are a different kind of document.

The bound folio remains the record. The wall chart is a memory aid for one sitting. We date it, and we write that it is not the report. Owners who leave last year’s chart up through a winter of new vacancies are briefing from furniture.

If you want a wall plate, say so in the commission. It is extra printing, extra drawing time, and it only makes sense when the room is real. For a sitting of three people, turn the bound pages. The far chair is close enough.