Montage as process of knowledge mobilization in architectural design

Abstract

Drawing on findings from an ethnographic study, the paper at hand provides an example of a pronounced way of working with montage as a means of mobilizing knowledge in the architectural design process. With reference to a specific design project, the paper follows architecture students systematically exploring and structuring the problem’s space of possibilities by applying montage. Highlighting the methodological rigor and logical coherence their procedure involves, the paper elaborates on montage as an effective method and traceable exploratory process. Presenting and discussing this empirical data, the paper aims at showing how montage allows for apprehending a problem in a holistic manner while at the same time facilitating its analysis into separate parts. In this way, montage engenders the mobilization of knowledge, which can be implicated to the case at hand.