Construction as a ‘building event’: exploring the role of project architects and their practices of intermediation during the construction of global architecture

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main aim of the following paper is to unpack the construction processes behind global architecture that have remained conceptually under-theorized and empirically unexplored. This is achieved by shifting the focus away from the brand-name global architects to the invisible, less prominent project architects employed in their celebrity offices. Based on the analysis of qualitative interviews, the paper conceptualizes project architects as key intermediaries and systematizes their embodied practices of intermediation enacted between design and execution. Project architects are revealed as key actors who negotiate between design ideas and the local contingencies, bridging between different sites of materialization. By introducing the conceptual lens of practices of intermediation, the paper explores how architecture takes its physical form, elucidating the micro-geographies behind construction processes. The construction of global architecture is hereby conceptualized as a ‘building event’, as a situated ‘performance’, during which professionals can transgress cognitive boundaries between design knowledge and execution expertise, and formal boundaries, defined by contracts, regulatory framework, and organizational hierarchies.