Between specificity and openness: How architects deal with design-use complexities

Abstract

Design-use relations are complex: architects influence social outcomes through design without having control over them. Making this complexity explicit during design is important, but difficult. Promising is work on human-technology relations in science and technology studies (STS) and philosophy of technology. With an eye to connecting this theoretical work to design practice, we study what architects already do: how design-use complexities figure during design processes and how architects deal with them. Based on a case study of the design competition for a new media building, we show two lines of reasoning in architects’ anticipation of use: specificity and openness. In doing so, we aim to provide insight into when, where and why they can benefit from STS and philosophical theory.