‘Does everything that does not impress us strike us as unimpressive? And does the ordinary always impress us as being ordinary?’ asked Wittgenstein in his Philosophical InvestigationsThe translation given by GEM Anscombe in the English edition reads: ‘Does everything that we do not find conspicuous make an impression of inconspicuousness? Does what is ordinary always make the impression of ordinariness?’. This article explores his questions through four built projects where the architects faced the apparent contradiction of inventing the everyday. The projects reflect an interest in construction with an ornamental quality in the classical sense of the word: a link between the building typology and its material appearance. The structure constitutes ‘an honest diagram’. The author was one of the lead architects for the buildings.