Visualizing practices in project-based design: tracing connections through cascades of visual representations

Kjell Tryggestad,Jennifer Whyte,Alice Comi

doi:10.1080/21573727.2016.1269005

Abstract

ABSTRACTProject-based design involves a variety of visual representations, which are evolved to make decisions and accomplish project objectives. Yet, such mediated and distributed ways of working are difficult to capture through ethnographies that examine situated design. A novel approach is developed that follows cascades of visual representations, and this is illustrated through two empirical studies. In the first case, Heathrow Terminal 5, analysis starts from paper- and model-work used to develop design, tracing connections forward to an assembly manual that forms a ‘consolidated cascade’ of visual representations. In the second, the Turning Torso, Malmo, analysis starts from a planning document, tracing connections backward to the paper- and model-work done to produce this consolidated cascade. This work makes a twofold contribution: first, it offers a methodological approach that supplements ethnographies of situated design. This allows the researcher to be nimble, tracing connections across comple...

Highlights

Visual representations are crucial to processes of designing and organizing
Recent research has articulated the role of visual representations in organizing (Meyer et al, 2013; Ravasi and Stigliani, 2012; Styhre, 2010) and a rich trajectory of research on drawings and other forms of visual representations has emerged in projectbased design (Enberg et al, 2006; Jönsson, 2004; Tryggestad et al, 2010; Justesen and Mouritsen, 2009; Whyte et al, 2007; Dossick and Neff, 2011; Yakura, 2002; Luck, 2007; Harty and Tryggestad, 2015)
The mediated and distributed ways of working through which project-based design is accomplished are difficult to capture through ethnographies that examine such situated practices

Summary

Introduction

Visual representations are crucial to processes of designing and organizing. By making information visible in front of others’ eyes, the most compelling images can muster ‘the largest number of well aligned and faithful allies’ (Latour, 1986, p. 4). We will examine examples from these studies to clarify how actions, talk, and consolidated cascades of visual representations (as well as the paper- and model-work involved in their construction) are dynamically connected in project-based design.

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