Constructing buildings and design ambitions

Abstract

Project goals are conceptualized in the construction management literature as either stable and exogenously given or as emerging endogenously during the construction process. Disparate as these perspectives may be, they both overlook the role that material objects used in construction processes can play in transforming knowledge and thereby shaping project goals. Actor-network theory is used to explore the connection between objects and knowledge with the purpose of developing an adaptive and pragmatic approach to goals in construction. Based on a case study of the construction of a skyscraper, emphasis is given to how design ambitions emerge in a process of goal translation, and to how, once these ambitions are materialized, tensions between aesthetic and functional concerns emerge and are resolved. These tensions are resolved through trials of strength as the object—the building—is elaborated and circulates across sites in various forms, e.g. artistic sketches, drawings and models. Given that initial goal accuracy is often seen as a key success factor, these insights have theoretical and practical implications for the management and evaluation of the construction project.Design ambitions, project goals, knowledge, evaluation,

A critical argument in favor of theoretical pluralism: Project failure and the many and varied limitations of project management

“…This modality of failure corresponds not to the performative disjuncture between the planned project and its outcome -the failure of management -but rather that a pre-defined criterion for success might not adequately capture a more emergent, or ambiguous, project vision from stakeholders (Kreiner and Frederiksen, 2007;Tryggestad et al, 2010). If we follow a positivistfunctionalist trajectory we might ask how we can efficiently identify, formalize and cost such an emergent project vision of success/failure, perhaps via improved stakeholder management methods (Cooke-Davies, 2002); in effect restoring management authority and control.…”

“…ANT studies have illustrated the transformative role of nonhumans to the co-ordination of projects, and managerial power (Blackburn, 2002;Linde and Linderoth, 2006;Pollack et al, 2013), not least in the context of construction (Harty, 2005;Sage et al, 2010b;Tryggestad et al, 2010). Bruno Latour (2005: 88), one of the originators of ANT (along with John Law and Michel Callon), even heralds building sites as exemplars of ANT: the transformative symbiosis of humans and nonhumans (see Latour and Yaneva, 2008).…”

“…By contrast, the design manager views the drawings as fluid objects (de Laet and Mol, 2000), which will provoke constant reinterpretation as the building is constructed. In this case it appears that the design manager better appreciates the emergent role of the design drawings, whereby they must evolve alongside the building itself, even project goals might be transformed as the building is built (Tryggestad et al 2010). The architectural firm, by contrast, seems content to be disconnected from these material complexities.…”

Rethinking construction expertise with posthumanism

“…The work of Latour is perhaps the most well-known version of what I have termed here the 'posthuman' condition, and his writing, unlike Haraway's, Barad's or Bradiotti's, has already made a noticeable impact in construction management (e.g. Harty, 2008;Lingard et al 2012;Trygesstad et al 2010;Sage et al 2014). Despite not deploying the term 'posthuman' (Latour's preferred argument is that 'we have never been human' -see Latour, 1993 Latour (1987) is far more explicit perhaps than these writers on the stabilizing dynamics of such interactions.…”

A New Quality Control Technology Based on Relay Chain Theory

“…Chan illustrated that there are also not only human but non-human influencing factors in the success of the construction project [15]. Study of the actor-network suggests that engineering activities, with both technical and non-technical content [17], are the situational practices that combine together to form a conceptual and political power network [16,18]. Engineering activity is an integrated process of heterogeneous elements which are not given and freely available for innovators.…”