Projecting decisions. Unfolding architectural design practice in decision-making processes

Abstract

This study explores the role of specific design documents – as visual artefacts – in shaping decision-making processes, highlighting how they can, at key moments, overcome conflicts by negotiating different perspectives. Architectural design research has undergone significant paradigm shifts, primarily through traditional sociological and anthropological approaches to professional practices in engineering and architecture. While scholars have examined how practitioners operate and how practices unfold, they have yet to connect the specific performativity of each artefact within these processes to its effects. Focusing on practices, the research follows different strands of research. First, it draws on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and recent ethnographies of architecture. Second, it links such perspective to Problem Structuring Methods (PSMs), focusing on interactions through artefacts. Finally, it contributes to a current debate in organization studies on the role of artefacts as boundary objects. Accordingly, the paper explores the role of architectural design practices in bringing forward effects in the decision-making process of a masterplan for developing an urban university campus. This paper makes a threefold contribution. First, in theoretical terms, tracing the performativity of architectural design practices. Second, in methodological terms, proposing a mapping methodology to trace such practices. Finally, it provides an interactive visualization tool.