Architecture: The Story of Practice -- Dana Cuff Full Citation Cuff, Dana. Architecture: The Story of Practice. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 1991. Print. Chapter Notes Acknowledgements - Some important details from this section: 1) focus on contradictions within architectural culture; 2) research support of this project (and the conclusions it raises) from the AIA (professional association) and the National Endowment for the Arts (US government funding); 3) Donald Schon intellectually supported thew project 1 -- Why Study the Culture of Practice (pp. 3-16) - Intro section (pp. 3-4) - Presents a change in her perspective of arch. practice from "grand genius" designer to wide ranger of everyday activities (pp. 3) - Definition of architectural practice: "the everyday world of work where architecture takes shape." (pp. 3) - Stresses that this condition on the ground is more complex than the definition (pp. 3) - Wide array of people involved, clients as groups (pp. 4) - Stresses the contradiction between belief (representation/self-representation) and observation ("reality"); this is the primary contradiction of the work (pp. 4) - Main idea of the book: examination of how buildings are collectively conceived in practice, how practice is socially constructed, and how this understanding of architecture can guide us toward making better environments (pp. 4) - What is Practice? (pp. 4-5) - Definition of "practice" = action or performance executed through a habitual, customary, or routine method; professional practice = customary or habitual performance of professional activities (pp. 4) - Emergence of architectural practice in interactions between interested parties (pp. 4) - Practice as embodiment and expression of a practitioner's everyday knowledge in a specified context (pp. 4) - In continuous development & invisible/hidden from outsiders/non-professionals (pp. 5) - Customary actions in concert = a culture; cultural study of architectural practice that leads to specific kinds of research and analysis of it (pp. 5) - Architectural practice in general is not a culture (too dispersed) but the practices of specific offices are (pp. 5) - This definition of "culture" comes out of Clifford Geertz's work (ch 1 nt. 1) - A Note on Theory and Methods (pp. 5-7) - Ethnographic approach applied; ethnography as pattern recognition practice; ethnography as investigating relation between ideas about a group and their material world (pp. 5) - Importance of semantic ethnography on her work, focus on speech: terms, categories (pp. 5) - Takes two positions on research: 1) narration from the point of view of research subjects; 2) importance of writing the researcher into the account (pp. 6) - Cuff as "indigenous researcher" by being an insider in the community under examination (pp. 6) - Theoretical allegiance to "ethnomethodology" and its phenomenological supports; attachment to cultural and social analysis; rejection of positivism and embrace of interpretivism, contextualization, and meaning-through-interaction (pp. 6) - Argues that ethnographic description is necessary to our understanding of how practice ought to function (pp. 6) - Stressing the incommensurability of what architects say and do, source in Argyris & Schon 1974 (pp. 7) - A balance between observation and interview to get beyond this (pp. 7) - The Architects and Firms (pp. 7-11) - Explicates the firms and architects her study took place in (pp. 7) - Tight geography to, primarily, the San Francisco Bay Area; practices vary in organizational structure, management, kinds of services, quality, and size (pp. 7) - Argues through Blau 1984 that size of practice is determinant of difference, though stresses how number of employees is often fluctuating/unclear (pp. 7) - Outlines three major case studies: 1) medium-small-sized firm (12-14) with 4 partners and varied, small-scale projects; 2) small firm (6-10) with one partner and mostly multi-family housing and developer office buildings; 3) large firm (30+) with 3 partners and 6 associates and many diverse projects around the world (pp. 7-8) - Notes homogeneity of people in firms (white men), but notes larger number of women entering profession and Asian-Americans as largest minority represented; notes high underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic people (pp. 8) - Rotated between firms over the course of a week with static observation from a single location in the office (pp. 8) - Working for each office on various small jobs at the same time; stresses that she was eventually hired as (essentially) an HR consultant (pp. 9) - Note taking at meetings was used by the offices in their process, access to informal occasions and get togethers, access to candid/informal conversations (pp. 9) - Expansion of research to other major US cities, roundtable discussions through the AIA (pp. 9) - Notes her own built-in biases which she hopes to eradicate through an increase in data quantity from various sources (pp. 10) - 1) bias of architects to make themselves look good in self-reporting; controls of this through observation (pp. 10) - 2) Issues with generalization from specific practices to Architectural Practice as a whole; distortion through missing key differences between practices (pp. 10) - In ch 1 nt. 8 the missing data are: 1) large architectural corporations, 2) women in architecture, 3) developer clients, 4) very small firms - 3) Limitation of focusing just on architects and not really engaging anyone else in the process (besides clients) (pp. 10) - Notes that her work is in service of a higher quality built environment (pp. 10) - Notes that she views architecture as socially constructed through negotiation and that this understanding is what will help make the built environment better (pp. 10) - Notes that she will be formulating recommendations for reform of architectural institutions to bring them in line with the culture of practice (pp. 11) - Issues and Findings (pp. 11-15) - Use of "dialectical dualities" to model a view of practice; view that architecture favours one pole of the contradiction while neglecting the other causing problems: the big whammy is that practice itself is the major neglected pole with "profession" being favoured (pp. 11) - Other oppositions examined: 1) individual -- collective, 2) design -- business, 3) decision making -- making sense, 4) specialism -- generalism (pp. 11) - Approaches these through: architect-client relations; comparing school vs. profession vs. office practice (pp. 11) - Recapitulates belief -- practice as ideology -- action (pp. 11) - Argument that design of built environment is fundamentally a collective activity with a balance struck between individual and collective activity (pp. 13) - The social dimension of architecture as the economic, interactive, and political component of everyday life and this format directly the artefacts of practice: buildings (pp. 13) - Notes the lack of studies on architectural practice from inside the profession (pp. 15) - Notes the small, emerging field of studies of design process (pp. 15) - Locates audience for her work in all members of architectural process so as to assist further in the social construction of architecture (pp. 15) - Overview of the Chapters (pp. 15-16) - General overview of the chapter layout: vignette oriented, semi-connected chapters 2 -- Beliefs and Practice (pp. 17-56) - Variations on an Office Theme (pp. 17-20) - Introduces general aim of chapter to engage how architects understand their own activities and make sense of their worlds (pp. 17-18) - Themes approached in chapter: training in schools and offices; importance of design; desire for authority/voice in design; the studio as ideal model; problems of the large office; tension between individual designer and collective activity (pp. 18) - Purpose of chapter: view profession of arch. as dynamic org. (pp. 18) & critically analyse arch. professionalism (pp. 20) - Words and Deeds (pp. 20-22) - Split between what architects do and what they say they are doing; Argyris & Schon 1974 present this as "theory-in-use" and "espoused theory" (pp. 20) - Contradictions between these reduces professional effectiveness until the practitioner is aware of the contradiction and can neutralize it (pp. 20) - Notes how the profession is the determinant influence on architectural practice (pp. 20); there is a professional ethos (tacitly justified actions and attitudes) that are rarely challenged and which can no longer respond to everyday practice (pp. 21) - Watching ethos work in practice can reveal its problematic aspects (pp. 21) - Professional ethos in arch. constricts behaviour of employees and partners (bosses) by giving high importance to "design," making it the source of professional identity despite the fact that it is scarce in practice, with bosses tending to hoard it (pp. 21) - Reasons for its critical analysis: 1) architects may not be aware of the undesirable consequences of their acts and need their beliefs challeneged (pp. 21-22); 2) need to engage the social context of practice beyond psychology (pp. 22); 3) practice management is its own burgeoning field (pp. 22) - Defining Professions (pp. 22-24) - Professions are social entities by virtue of being a dynamic collection of practitioners (pp. 22) - Social interactions btwn colleagues, principles, policies, procedures all act to maintain existence of profession; notes that this requires concerted struggle; there can be degrees of professionalization, its not static (pp. 23) - Degree based on complexity of relationships, level of organization, length of training, licensure, and prestige of profession (pp. 23) - Impart knowledge and skills (pp. 23) - Emerge from occupations that seek autonomy, social status, and control over their labour market (pp. 23) - Consider themselves to have social contract with public: trade deal I get privilege and you get offloading of responsibility (pp. 23); this is legally enforced with professionals having legal responsibilities to clients (pp. 24) - As labour conditions change, professional ideology of independence and service is retained (pp. 24) - From independent, autonomous actors to wage-earning workers (pp. 24) - Professional ideology obfuscates real conditions of labour and inspires work of professionals (pp. 24) - The Metamorphosis of Architecture (pp. 24-28) - General overview of changes to architectural practice in the US from its inception in 1857 with the setup of AIA to its adaptation of European educational models and rectification of studio education (pp. 24-28) - Notes education movement gave architectural profession status while simultaneously ensuring that its practitioners were those already with status (pp. 28) - Patronage and the Artistic Distinction (pp. 28-35) - 19[th] and early 20[th] cen. alliance between architecture and the arts and dissociation from craft; opposed to engineering through design expertise as aesthetic expertise (pp. 28-29) - Tight connection between clients and architects due to local market for services (pp. 31) - Notes that there is no monopolization over design though since in many contexts architectural design makes no difference from non-architects (pp. 31-32) - Architectural services, due to specificity of design to client, are limited to wealthiest sector of society (pp. 32) - Architecture produces "cultural capital," a means of showing off wealth (pp. 32) - Notable that architecture is not able to use the professional-patron relationship to achieve any autonomy, closely tied to patrons (pp. 33) - Contradictory impetus: professional association standardization and unity VS. education individuality and personal artistic development (pp. 31) - Notes the wide array of people involved in architectural design beyond the architect (pp.32) - Importance of drawings in architectural practice as objects of study and in an emerging art market (pp. 33) - Notes increasing importance of developer clients and how they have commodified architecture through speculative building projects (pp. 33) - Architects as translators who use design to mediate between function and form (pp. 33); this is a social art since agreement needs to be arrived at (pp. 35) - Professionalism and the Contemporary Scene (pp. 35-45) - Major contradictions between belief and practice, this inherent to the designer's task (pp. 35) - Contradiction between art and business with the client at the centre of this (pp. 35) - In general professions play up individualism and intrinsic value of work while downplaying market principles and profit motive [as of 1977]; this as the "service ideal" (pp. 35) - Contradiction between definable and mysterious aspects of professional knowledge; core of well-accepted knowledge and periphery of esoteric knowledge; this to gain power over uncertainty (pp. 36) - Secrecy of professional knowledge in architecture characterize it as "colleague-oriented" with practitioner judgement/evaluation more important that clients/the public (pp. 36) - Profession and "discipline" hold each other up and ensure the others' existence (pp. 37) - Notes the "art defence" as a means of gaining autonomy and escaping public judgement (pp.37) - Mysterious aspect helps to establish exclusivity of profession and ideal of "autonomous architect" (pp. 37) - Notes that architecture has not been able to put forward testable hypotheses, this due to the complexity/indeterminacy of design problems ("wicked problems") and the tendency of new professions to emerge from and autonomize from architecture (pp. 39) - Notes how the control of knowledge and information is important in construction projects and how information accuracy and extents are manipulated on purpose to preserve power in this process (pp. 39) - Power of the client is most ambiguous, but the client is existentially necessary to architectural practice (pp. 40) - Push to unity and standardization of profession through AIA (professional association) (pp. 41) - Push against this through: 1) non-universality of registration/licensure & 2) non-universality of professional association membership (pp. 41) - Education as overwhelming determinant in producing unified ethos despite apprenticeship being a viable mode of getting into practice, though the majority of practice owners have degrees (pp. 41) - Academy disseminating common language and various tacit knowledge through socialization (pp. 43-44) - University focus on design (art and theory) prefigures espoused theories of practitioners (pp. 44-45) - Need to engage ideology and "real" social relations of practice to make sense of architectural practice is stressed (pp. 45) - The Place of Practice (pp. 45-49) - Definition of "the office" in architecture as: "a setting where human resources are organized to obtain commissions and deliver services." (pp. 45) - Size as main determinant of difference between offices, but other dimensions too: recognition of principals, building types, organization, disciplinary emphasis (pp. 45-46) - Growth in size of arch. offices ~ specialization in building industry (pp. 46) - Most offices in US are small as of 1988 though increasing centralization of fees to large offices (pp. 46-47) - Notes declining profits in architecture and argues that this is due to increased supply of architects (ie. more practices vying for work) (pp. 47-49) - Notes expansion of what architects do in design and increased demand for architectural services (pp. 49) - Argues that the effect of both of these tendencies is the institution of a managerial approach where there is a strong division of labour (against the earlier collaborative context of design practice) (pp. 49) - Work and Workers (pp. 49-53) - With specialization comes "dequalification" as tasks are quantized into tine pieces (pp. 49) - Less meaningful, more alienating jobs; hyper-hierarchization and centralization of power with the bosses (pp. 49) - Notes how "design" is considered (by practitioners) mostly the ability to make broad conceptual decisions and how this is an illusion (pp. 52) - General tendency in all professions to tripartite stratification of rank-and-file, administrators, and knowledge elite (pp. 50) - Specialist groups develop their own professional identities; managerial specialists and their increased status & oversight w/o increased design responsibility (pp. 50) - Notes that since the mid-70s, the majority of architects are employees (pp. 50) - Mild forms of sabotage in the lowest level of architectural employees due to lack of direct involvement in design decision-making (pp. 51) - Moonlighting phenomenon as employees work on their own projects during leisure time clandestinely (pp. 51) - Agreement among architects that compensation is too low (pp. 52) - The upshot of the desire for decision-making responsibility: bosses can exploit architect-employees with a wide range of skills by giving them more responsibility instead of or without higher pay (pp. 53) - Across the Table: The Clients (pp. 53-56) - Notes changes to the make-up of the client population, namely a globalization/internationalization of US architectural practice, a movement to mostly midd-class clients, and an increase in corporate/institutional/government group clients (pp. 53) - Most international work executed by large offices (pp. 53) - Split between clients (who commissioned the building) and inhabitants (who actually lives in the building day to day) (pp. 55) - This also includes an increased tendency to deal with agents for the client rather than the actual client (pp. 55) - Argument from Fitch (1965) that the tendency towards formalism is an outcome of this disconnection with the "real clients" (pp. 55) - Growth in "mega-clients" who do more than 1 million bucks of construction per year (pp. 55) - Notes that, in general, architectural practice is tending more and more towards resembling the general world of business (pp. 56) - Conclusion (pp. 56) - Recapitulation of belief-action contradiction; notes that ideology and "real forces" both determine at the same time (pp. 56) - Architecture as collective endeavour, bound up with more than just architects; argues that social context of architectural practice is extremely important to consider for architects especially in gaining new power over design (pp. 56) 3 -- Design Problems in Practice (pp. 57-108) - Southridge College Campus Planning Meeting (pp. 57-63) - Presents an excerpt from a design meeting with an institutional client (pp. 58-59) - Notes the way design in practice runs counter to popular & professional expectations of practice (pp. 61) - The notion of "complex client" where a design team may have to answer to multiple levels of client authority (pp. 61) - Distinction btwn two defs. of "design" -- design as in "well-designed" and as in "the activity of designing"; this chapter reconsiders the latter definition (pp. 61) - Reconsideration in light of the fact that everyone with a "voice" in the process is a designer [see Yanni Loukissas' (2012) term "co-designer" for this], with architects having extra responsibilities of coordination and spatial expression (pp. 61) - Design problems in practice includes more than just the activity of spatial expression (design proper) but also approvals process, construction management, commission obtaining, etc. (pp. 61) - Six principal characteristics of design problems in practice (see the heading list below): (pp. 62) - Design problems in practice are different from their presentation in education and professional association material, specifically in the US (pp. 63) - Defining Design Problems in Schools (pp. 63-66) - Notes that professional associations present design for the public and courts (pp. 63) - Generalizes from professionally accredited architectural programs whose overarching similarity is studio instruction (pp. 63) - Educational design problem differ due to: 1) distinct setting; 2) studio can only provide experience of design as isolated activity; 3) educational problems are selected by instructors for specific didactic reasons (pp. 65) - The Academy as safe site for error and innovation by disengaging the act of design from its context; ignoring the social arts of design, contract negotiation, real estate finance, and regulation (pp. 66) - The Professional Organization (pp. 66-68) - Introduces the AIA as force of conservatism, it was set up by and represents established firms and architectural bosses primarily; sets standards for building industry despite non-universal membership (pp. 66) - Handbook of Professional Practice as the stable instantiation of the AIA's approach to design, expressed through contractual certainties (pp. 68) - 1. Design in the Balance (pp. 68-72) - Architecture attempts to unite ideologically contradictory forces of art and business making every action a contested one (pp. 62) - Design time and design freedom are challenged in practice by: (pp. 69) - 1) the client's common priorities (cheapness and functionality) (pp. 69) - Overcome when the client respects professional values (pp. 69) - 2) the architectural office's own business practices (pp. 69) - A) View of managers as outsiders by architects (pp. 69); sabotage of business managers; prediction that they will gain acceptance in the future (pp. 70) - B) "charette ethos" of good design requiring work beyond the allotted time, fee, and hours of work (pp. 70) - Argues that the two poles should be balanced rather than falling to one or the other side (pp. 71) - Presents the AIA's separation of art and business as demonstrated in the Handbook; roots the split in Vitruvius (pp. 71-72) - Enumerates the AIA's codified 5 stages of the project; notes that most time and fee goes towards drawing production and not conceptual design (pp. 72) - Demonstrates that academic design problems rarely approach "pragmatic concerns" (pp. 72) - 2. Countless Voices (pp. 72-84) - Influence is distributed over many voices in the design process (pp. 62) - Architects' ideal to have full control over all of design process with patrons stepping back entirely (pp. 72-73) - Lone architectural genius is a myth, even historical medieval design is distributed (pp. 73) - Pushing of architecture into the "public domain" in the US where a huge number of people can have input (at different levels) (pp. 74) - Those who seems to be insignificant in the process may actually have a larger influence in specific situations (pp. 74-75) - Ultimate power in the project is having the ability to end it; Cuff deploys military game theory (the zero-sum game) (pp. 75) - Discussion of the diffuse influence in design processes (pp. 76); discussion of how schools do not engage this at all and how the AIA has a limited approach to it (pp. 77) - School upholds primacy of lone designer with the instructor as the only pseudo client (pp. 81) - Presents the triad of engineer-architect-client as the essential relationship around which all others are arrayed (pp. 80) - 3. Professional Uncertainty (pp. 84-91) - Practice is a dynamic situation where all the factors discussed below are up in the air (pp. 62) - Constant change that every design problem and organization undergoes over time is source of uncertainty; response is "experience" (pp. 84) - A) Expertise (pp. 84-85) - Architect expected to be a generalist in knowledge (pp. 84); but this leads to ambiguity of responsibility, areas of expertise and their boundaries are contestable (pp. 85) - B) Authority (pp. 85-86) - Authority over delegation is unclear making responsibility unclear, this as a source of liability issues; reluctance to assign responsibility due to unclarity (pp. 85) - Different bases of information, different access/communication (pp. 85) - Ambiguity of authority as a source of decisions taking a long time since no one wants to be responsible when they shouldn't be (pp. 86) - C) Allegiance (pp. 86-87) - When authority is unclear, those with strong interests cling to any snatch of power they can get their hands on, leading to the formation of temporary and changing alliances (pp. 86-87) - D) Procedures (87-88) - Procedures for how a project is actually run are themselves unclear due to this changeability in the conception of design problems (the wicked problem) (pp. 87) - Impact of one phase upon later ones is often unclear and unpredictable (pp. 87) - "procedures" = methods of action exhibited during the course of a project (pp. 87) - AIA does not recognize this uncertainty, rather prescribing certainty, with suggestions informally followed (pp. 88-89) - Uncertainty is avoided in the Academy since it is difficult to simulate and takes away from the didactic aspects of studio instruction, the lone designer with personalized feedback (pp. 90-91) - 4. Perpetual Discovery (pp. 91-95) - Design is a process of continual discovery due to the inherent incompleteness of information obtainable and the challengeable aspect of every constraint; design could be unending (pp. 62) - Uncertain outcomes means no rational way of determining the time it will take to complete a design (pp. 91) - Deadlines and schedules come from outside design, external pressures (pp. 91) - Time management as most common ailment in architecture; phase transitions predicated on client approval, completion of phases are based on agreement between client and architects that it is in fact complete (pp. 91) - Projects take longer than expected since: 1) in architectural practice, simple activities can be extremely time consuming (pp. 91); 2) external participants can cause unforeseen delays; 3) everything is negotiable and information is never complete; 4) any one change changes every other part of the design (pp. 92) - Deadlines are limits on perpetual discovery; clients want speed since time is money (you're fired Jones!); stresses how schedules have significant impact on building's design (pp. 92) - Notes that management of time = synchronization and enforcement of that synchronization, notes some examples of how (pp. 92) - Determining what constraints are negotiable and which are not, two basic constraints: 1) the client's problem requires architecture as a solution; 2) the site (pp. 93) - Number of issues/constraints also leaves design open to perpetual discovery, there's too much and not enough information at the same time (pp. 93) - Notes interconnection of design problems, how solutions lead to new problems (pp. 93-94) - How the AIA ignores the complexity of design problems; how the Academy is a good example of "perpetual discovery" (pp. 95) - 5. Surprise Endings (pp. 95-101) - The possibilities of design are so limitless that no participant could predict the outcome from the beginning (pp. 62) - The building as outcome of negotiations with client, not the object of negotiations; labour power in expertise is sold, not buildings (pp. 96) - AIA attempts to reduce ambiguity by limiting the range of surprises a building could show up (pp. 96) - Difficulty in prediction comes from: 1) no point in a building's life where it can be judged definitively; 2) architects are brought in when people/institutions have shifts in expectations; 3) the principal planning media are simulations of the outcome, the limits of visual literacy (pp. 96-97) - Predictions about the conditions of the future are also often included in design as information, they are designed (pp. 97) - Forming expectations of the outcome complicated by the fact that architectural solutions are interchangeable with managerial ones (legal strictures, personal oversight, surveillance) (pp. 97-98) - Reliance on precedents as guarantees that certain design moves will lead to certain outcomes, the precedent study as scrying the future (pp. 99) - Discussion of how the AIA tries to stabilize the issue of indeterminacy, where architects are responsible for plans and contractors responsible for constructed outcomes, liability as a major issued covered in the 1988 edition of the Handbook, AIA sees architectural outcomes as predictable (pp. 100-101) - The Academy embraces the unpredictability and surprise endings, though they're different than problems in practice (pp. 101) - 6. A Matter of Consequence (pp. 101-106) - Design has serious consequences for every participant in the process, for future inhabitants, and for the public at large, notes that the professionalization of architecture comes out of these stakes (ie. the transfer of responsibility to specific people presumed to know) (pp. 62, 101) - Design decisions as calculated risks, buildings as nearly permanent and unavoidable; the responsibilities of a building can only be transferred to someone else (pp. 102) - Not all negative consequences of design/construction can be avoided, not every participant has an equal voice; economics and power differentials can determine who matters (pp. 102) - For negotiation, there must already be overlaps in objectives, there must be a fundamental common interest for clients, architects and consultants (pp. 103) - Experience as guarantor, often, of positive outcomes/success to clients (pp. 103) - Clients have a much more ambiguous role in architecture, having more influence over outcomes (as opposed to Medicine or Law) (pp. 104) - For architects, projects are linked to later work, whether they get more work or not, through the office archive and portfolio, through collection of professional recognition (pp. 104-105) - More commissions = solvency; the interests of profit are basal to design success; commissions have consequences for staffing and pay (pp. 105-106) - AIA stresses importance of architecture to the public; schools ignore the stakes to form a risk-free environment for experimentation (pp. 106) - Conclusion (pp. 107-108) - General upshot: problems in practice are more uncertain, contradictory, and have more participants with high stakes (pp. 107) - Bidirectional relationship between schools and practice: practice problems shape academic training and academic approaches shape practices (pp. 107-108) - School = designers' ideal; professional association = designers' dream of a public ideal; both can be instruments of change, but not of any radical change (pp. 108) - Currently, the goals of change forwarded by prof. associations and schools are undermined by ignorance of the social art of design and context (pp. 108) 4 -- The Making of an Architect (pp. 109-154) - Paul's Initiation (pp. 109-111) - Intro vignette of young architect btwn school and full job (pp. 109) - How architects are not taught how to be "cultural interpreters" and understand a new culture of work they're thrust into; how architects respond through "charette" since it's the only thing they know (from school); how partners cease to notice how charetting becomes their usual way of working (pp. 110) - Meanings are fluid in architectural practice, being constantly remade; outsiders' participation goes both ways: integrating and evolving the system (pp. 110) - Main argument: architectural practice is a culture whose examination will give us a better understanding of architecture's uniqueness and what architectural identity means (pp. 110) - Culture of practice as what happens inside the sociological boundaries (the structure a la Strauss' structuralism), structure is backdrop (pp. 111) - Change is the main characteristic of architectural practices that is evident everywhere, time and its consequences is central to understanding architectural practice (pp. 111) - This chapter is about how an individual becomes an architect (identity) (pp. 111) - The Office Culture (pp. 111-112) - Justifies her cultural analytical approach; beyond sociology's disembodied processes (pp. 111) and pop-business analysis of "corporate culture" (pp. 112); locates her study with cultural analyses of other professions (pp. 112) - The Definition of Culture (pp. 112-116) - Definition adapted from Clifford Geertz's work: "a set of control mechanisms -- plans, recipes, rules, instructions... -- for governing behaviour." The programs give meaning to experience; culture is the totality of mechanisms. (pp. 113) - Cultural analysis as a means of predicting what people (the architect here) will do in the future by understanding their world (pp. 113) - We can learn about them since "webs of significance" are public, shared, and observable; they do not belong to one individual; they are made even more visible by outsiders in a culture (pp. 113) - The point of architectural work culture is to ensure the smooth process of production, as opposed to constant arguing; new members are assimilated to it (pp. 115) - So-called office culture is not monolithic and consist of various subcultures that operate together as a dynamical system constituting everyday life (pp. 115) - Argues that social context of life in architectural practice is at least as influential as site and materials on the form of a building (pp. 116) - From Layperson to Expert (pp. 116-118) - Studying the process of becoming an architect as a means of accessing what it means to be one (pp. 116) - Proposes a series of periods: architectural student entry-level architect /[full-fledged-architect]/ {project architect/associate principal} - Notes she will be focusing on most common way of becoming full architect (pp. 117) - Discussion of how one decides to become an architect (pp. 117-118) - Only two ways to begin (school or apprenticing) but many ways to [note the next word well] escape architecture (pp. 118) - Path of professional socialization as one of repressing "idiosyncrasies" (pp. 118) - The Architectural Student (pp. 118-129) - Outlines the standard 5-year design degree, presents the undergrad-masters program; defines main characteristics of both: studio, crit, and charette (pp. 118) - Notes that canon of heroes and precedents is strongly established, yet continually revised (pp. 121) - Studio is primary, everything else is secondary; stresses the instructor-student relation as primary one (pp. 121) with face-to-face time as a limited resource, rareness of non-architects in crits (pp. 122) - Dinham's three purposes of review juries: 1) criticize individual students; 2) provide general instruction; 3) initiate scholarly exchange that's supposed to add to the student's growth; Juries also assimilate students to values (pp. 126) - The charette deadline and how students learn from each other (pp. 128) - Notes that architectural schools are dominated by a patriarchal culture (pp. 128) - Transition to next stage: learning that experience is everything (pp. 129) - Entry-Level Architects: The Gathering Experience (pp. 129-137) - Standard architectural office hierarchy (high to low): principals, associates, project architects, then "everyone else" (pp. 129) - "everyone else" = typically those just out of school (pp. 129) - Landing a Job (pp. 130-133) - Notes the circular issue of needing a job getting experience; menial jobs, personal connections, unpaid work (pp. 130) - Low unemployment among architects; working for low or no pay due to: high supply of architectural grads & need for experience for better/permanent work -- the architectural labour market looks like the "unskilled labour" market (pp. 130) - Persistent fluctuation in labour pool: people hired and fired per project, movement of workers to better jobs as soon as they have the experience, nonexistent job security (pp. 132) - For bosses, employees are potential liabilities to the survival of the firm [read as "profits"] (pp. 132) - Uncertainty of architectural practice (pp. 132) - Title Blocks and Bathroom Details (pp. 133-134) - Work of architectural employees looks more like the work of labourers than of professionals (pp. 133); young architects treated like architectural tools rather than people (pp. 134) - Training of interns done at the least expense with little oversight and on tasks with few consequences (pp. 134) - High mobility of young employees between offices (pp. 134) - Key to keeping your job is error-free speed: working quickly and accurately (pp. 134) - The Humility of Practice (pp. 134-137) - Difficulty of young architects to get range of experience they want (pp. 135) - Contradiction between generalist approach of AIA/schools and the coordination of specialists representative of practice (pp. 135) - Accumulation of authorship credit with the principals with no authorship afforded to employees lowest on the chain; note this in relation to the importance of authorship forwarded in schools/AIA (pp. 135) - Examines the "rebel" who avoids wage labour in architecture through various means (single client, teaching, family money, connections) and start their own office immediately (pp. 135-136) - The Middle Years: Job Captain, Project Architect, Associate (pp. 137-146) - No predetermined duration for being "entry-level"; metamorphosis into "middle years" is slow and uneven with the change in job title (and pay) following an increase in responsibility/change in job description; uncertainty is most apparent here, period of greatest ambiguity (pp. 137) - Major change is from worker to manager: overseeing work, keeping work effort/fee in check, monitoring progress; also meeting with clients/consultants; this is the case unless you're a specialist, where oversight isn't necessarily part of your job (pp. 140) - A few possible routes: lead designer, manager/supervisor, specialist (pp. 140) - Includes a change of office usually (pp. 140) - Becoming an associate has nothing to do with length of tenure (pp. 141) - "Rites of passage" to becoming full-fledged architect: (pp. 141); main rite of passage is one from dependence to autonomy (pp. 145) - Licensing exam: various tests, two of which are design problems; most applicants don't pass all parts on first try (pp. 141); in 1991, it is not a prerequisite of entrance into the profession, but is a legal requirement for independent practice (pp. 143) - Starting an office: another expression of independence; two stereotypes of starving artist and entrepreneur (pp. 143) - A Note on Gender (pp. 145-146) - The difficulties of women in the "middle years" due to concealment of mechanisms for advancement; concealing everything means discrimination happens (pp. 145) - Concealment also provides clarity of gender bias in advancement; due to this, more women going out on their own earlier (pp. 145) - Vagueness of criteria for advancement, clear that principals whims are the only criteria; those who move up the ladder hoard responsibilities in a self-perpetuating system where those higher up don't want to lose anything and those lower down grapple upwards (pp. 146) - The Full-Fledged Architect: Authority and Buildings (pp. 146-153) - Meaning of "full-fledged" for this group is attached to buildings produced, especially the production on large-scale projects (pp. 146) - Means having the responsibility for something big AND getting credit for it (pp. 147) - Responsibility = design control and cost responsibility; f-f practitioner is one who can lose money if things go south (pp. 147) - Balance of activities shifts away from doing the work to getting the work; established practitioner actually does less design than those lower down the ladder, but gets all the credit (pp. 149) - Evolution after reaching "f-f" status, searching for stability and security through steady flow of work (pp. 149) for insurance; this attached to desire for greater profitability, both monetary and in prestige (better projects) (pp. 150); and in expansion of intellectual influence, ie. having power over others and ultimately having power over time through archival inclusion/leaving your mark (pp. 151) - Conclusion (pp. 153-154) - Notes three rites of passage: 1) rites of separation from student to entry-level; 2) rites of transitions from entry-level to middle years; 3) rites of incorporation from middle to f-f years (pp. 153) - Constructivist model of identity: one becomes an architect before one is one (pp. 153) - Becoming an architect is essentially a process of assimilation: becoming different but not too different (pp.154) - Argues that the profession should expand its creative domain (pp. 154) 5 -- The Architect's Milieu (pp.155-1940 - Intro Section (pp. 155-157) - Recapitulates earlier material on sociology of practice and economic trends to centralization (pp. 155) - This chapter focuses on how architects work in groups to form meaningful worlds for themselves and their actions; milieu as a means of expresses personal identity (pp. 157) - Characteristics of milieu: office heritage, language, power structure, practices/values (pp. 157) - Office Heritage (pp. 157-162) - Based on mythos of the practice founders (pp. 157-159); old-timers as "elders" who pass on stories/ideology (pp. 159); inheritance of behaviours through aping; principal(s) personal values are determinant in shaping office values; values passed through the portfolio of buildings as well (pp. 160) through shared interpretation by senior members (pp. 161) - Firm Growth and Change (pp. 162-164) - Various modes: growth not change (charismatic leader), no growth no change (subsidization or stuck in small scale), shrinking (economic downturn), growth and change (pp. 162); evolutionary paths based on internal upheaval and external pressures; material conditions significantly influence office heritage (pp. 164) - The Cultural Scene (pp. 165-171) - Recapitulates Geertz (pp. 165) - Dialect (pp. 165-166) - Definitions of culture which centre language; practitioners acquire common lexicon to make sense of projects inside of which lurk values (pp. 165-166) - Values (pp. 166) - Differences in values between management and workers; however there are enough complementary values or common values to keep things going; learned from experience/demonstration; totality cannot be known but act as if they could be known (pp. 166) - Prevailing Practices and Rituals (pp. 166-169) - Prevailing practices = how architects act with the values in mind (pp. 166) - Rituals (recurrent patterns of activity) existing at every firm which are for group cohesion: activities that co-opt labour for management objectives; noting that management/worker split is ambiguous in architectural offices, yet there are significant power relations (pp. 167) - Power relations = ability to move someone or something within an organization in a desired direction (Zaltman 1976); persuasion, design idea strength, status within office through support from powerful individuals (pp. 167); formal and informal power [more effective]; voice through esoteric knowledge; access to power = power (pp. 168) - Roles (pp. 169-171) - Recurrent patterns of activities = "roles"; theatrical analogy; outlines "role theory"; people temporarily assume roles, changing roles, taxonomy of roles (pp. 170) - Architect and Client (pp. 171-173) - Architecture firm as cultural microcosm, mediation between public and individual architect; architect's relation to client as important as internal workings of office (pp. 171) - Office as virtual, safe context of shared worldviews; clients interface architects with public (pp. 171) - Differences between art patrons and architectural clients; client plays active role alongside practitioner; approval is key to continuing the process (pp. 171) - Proposes clear discursive patterns of interaction, interactions are designed, meetings as design problems (pp. 171) - Lists the patterns (see next section); notes how the taxonomy is subject-focused rather than deliverable focused like the AIA (pp. 173) - Design Interactions (pp. 173-188) - Notes intensity of interactions (pp. 173); presents approximated quants model of intensity (pp. 174-175) - Presents the case study of a mosque project to explore the stages/patterns (pp. 178) - Courtship: architects and clients ask for and present information based on preconceptions (pp. 178-179); Building Rapport: must be maintained constantly through effective communication, cultivation of a shared enemy (pp. 179-181); Unveiling Boundaries and Preferences: amendment through addition of new information/amendment of information, three "types" (pp. 181-183); Avoiding Disputes: main unwritten law of architectural practice is to avoid confrontation and find other ways to get what you want, this through "spacing" around an issue or altering the "timing" of design (pp. 183-184); Constructing Progress: making agreements tangible, suspending bias to produce virtual space (pp. 184-185); Improvisational Talk: discussion as improvisation with emergent outcomes, extensive section of discourse analysis, client dominates early meetings with shift to architect later, visual discussions through sketch, collage, etc. (pp. 185-188) - Design Talk (pp. 188-191) - Presents a different case study that will be examined in depth, a ski resort in Colorado (pp. 188-190) - Discussion's objective of mutual understanding (pp. 190) - Decisions, Agreement, and Sense Making (pp. 191-194) - Deeper analysis of previous example, focus on difficulty of tracing decisions, discussions are about gaining power in the process (pp. 191) - Manipulative tactics, positioning and displaying positions (pp. 192) - Emergent issues and linked issues (pp. 193); literary techniques of simulation (pp. 193) - The question of whether the influences from within the office and from the client have positive or negative effects on good design (pp. 194) 6 -- Excellence in Practice: The Origins of Good Building (pp. 195-245) - Intro bit (pp. 195) - Recapitulates "design as a social art"; confronting the cliché about collaborative design processes making bad buildings; focus on the architect and client as central in this art (pp. 195) - Defining Excellence (pp. 195-232 - Attempts to define "excellence" in architecture, beyond making profit or feeling good; excellence in architecture is making excellent buildings; buildings as central cases (pp. 195) - Flipping to "architectural management" (pp. 195); noting abundance of writing on marketing/management coming from legal and business side; introduces In Search of Excellence (1982) as business approach extraordinaire (pp. 196) - Design quality as phenomena perceived by individuals; excellent building when agreement between consumers/public & profession & participants in design (pp. 196); discussion of how these are measured (pp. 197); notes the limitations of the study (pp. 198) - Bergren House/Venice III [small firm, single client, small budget, private house] (pp. 199-209); San Juan Capistrano Library [large star firm, complex public client, public funding, civic building] (pp. 209-220); Monterey Bay Aquarium [large multi-principal firm, corporate client, large budget, commercial building] (pp. 220-232) - Excellent Clients, Architects, and Projects (pp. 232-235) - Notes that excellent buildings have "professional clients" a la Schon (pp. 232-233) - Clients that allow architects to ignore certain financial constraints (pp. 233) - Good client relations and stress on "ownership of the project" (pp. 234) - Dynamic Forces and Principles of Uncertainty (pp. 235-243) - Outlines criticism of management lit., that it ignores dynamics of everyday practice (pp. 235) - Proposes the following points where contradictions are held in balance: (pp. 235) - Quality Demands (pp. 236-237); Simplicity Within Complexity (pp. 237-238); Stereovision (pp. 238-239); Open Boundaries (pp. 239-240); Flexibility With Integrity (pp. 240-241); Teamwork With Independence (pp. 241-242); Exceeding the Limits (pp. 242-243) - In Search of New Excellence (pp. 243-245) - Notes that her qualities of design excellence often align with the business qualities of excellence (pp. 243) - Outcomes of study: design excellence and profitability are not incompatible; we can only speak of excellent projects; the lone-architect-genius is a myth; context is dynamic; design is a social art (pp. 245) -7 -- Conclusion (pp. 247-263) - Intro section (pp. 247-251) - First hand account of her previous experience in architectural community consultation and its market research techniques (pp. 247) - Recapitulates key claim: architecture is a social art which means that design is more than just what happens at the drawing board but all of architectural practice (pp. 247) - Main thrust of professional reform towards regaining architects' power over the design process through attending to all of design (pp. 247); this through bringing the contradictions into balance with each other and keeping them in proper, irresolvable tension (pp. 250) - Introduces a series of suggestions which are supposed to protect the stability and existence of the profession through "controlled diversity" (assimilative tendency) (pp. 250) - The Individual and the Collective (pp. 251-254) - Need to challenge myth of the independent practitioner through interventions in architectural education (pp. 251); all to produce "controlled diversity of opinions" which is supposed to allow thew profession to respond to complexity while retaining it privileges (pp. 254) - Decision Making or Sense Making? (pp. 254-255) - Argues that "sense-making" is the necessary skill of practitioners not decision making, adapts the dialogical stuff from Schon where sense-making is a collective making sense of the situation (pp. 254) - Design and Art Versus Business and Management (pp. 255-258) - Argues that art-business divide must be bridged and proposes strategies (pp. 255) which adopt business school techniques of case-based learning [which Schon 1983 notes are adopted from trade schools] (pp. 257) - Specialists and Generalists (pp. 258-260) - Proposal that education better train students for both generalism and specialism at the same time through reformed degree programs, formal internships, and continuing ed. (pp. 258-259) - Convergence with business school/management program goals: to train leaders rather than just designers (pp. 260) - Areas for Change (pp. 260-263) - Outlines the areas for change and recapitulates her issues with the current formation of professional education Appendix A -- Original Research (pp. 265-266) - Lists the instances of interview and observational data collection along with the series of roundtable discussions and their institutional supporters Appendix B -- Partial List of Architects Interviewed (pp. 267) - Exactly as the title says; all architects are named and not under pseudonyms Appendix C -- Attributes of Excellence (pp. 269-270) - A summary of the attributes extracted in chapter 6, formatted for appropriation as a kind of scorecard Appendix D -- Problems in Three Spheres (pp. 271-272) - Outline of major problems in education and professional institution; these are formalized/summarized versions of what is explained in chapter 3