Documenting architectural practice

This study is a situated socio-technical examination of the culture of architecture, wherein the decisions and negotiations of actors in everyday practice effect artifact creation, management, and preservation. My argument is that all participants in architectural practice are making archival decisions when they actively select what to make, what to discard, and what to keep. As a historical narrative, the study addresses continuity of architectural documentation by examining how everyday practices, and the resulting artifacts, have changed over time. Working from a critical constructivist framework and employing an interpretivist methodology, I adopted mixed methods to provide a rich understanding of the history of architectural and archival practices in which to situate my analysis and address the following question:

How might architectural artifacts be preserved in ways that illuminate the complexity of practice and the multiple layers of assumptions and values that inform the co-construction of the built environment?

The story I want to tell about architecture requires investigation through three methods, each addressing one of the primary concerns of my research. The historical examination of computer technologies for architecture situates my understanding of the artifacts of practice within the context of debate about the value of specific tools for architecture and discussions about role of the architect within the industry. A reflective analysis of learning architectural technology describes my work to understand two specific tools used in architecture, AutoCAD and Revit.

I introduce how complexity and uncertainty are woven throughout architectural practice, problematize the attribution of architecture to solo creators, and establish a framework for how to study complex workplaces, in particularly situated action in an architectural firm. Employing Howard Davis’ concept of “building culture” as a frame for considering the larger context within which people do architectural work, I describe historical cases of technological change and how information (as concept) is used in doing architecture. I examine an in-depth case study that provides an enhanced understanding of what contemporary architectural practice looks like and how artifacts are an integral part of the doing of architecture. Drawing on results of my research, I develop an “architectural information system” concept and address building social and technical infrastructure to document and preserve architectural artifacts.