Building community : design in the organizational mind

Abstract

In the search for meaning, the architectural profession legitimately seeks culture to sanction its products. However, in business organizations, culture is complex and tacit- richer and deeper than any of its external manifestations, including architecture. To compensate for culture's incoherence, the profession assumes facile access to culture through existing artifacts and spatial usage. I contend this response limits the profession's ability to engage social complexity, imbue architecture with cultural relevancy, and establish competitive advantage. This dissertation aims to provide insights into architectural form and process in relation to organizational culture. Schon contends tacit frames revealed in design activity circumscribe organizational culture. Further, the institutional and cultural status of these frames requires engaging in a collaborative design process. 'Appearances of form' in design activity demonstrate the presence of frames and simultaneously enable speculating about their tacit nature. Similar to the construction of frames, the design of an evolving physical object reveals how prior knowledge is assembled to facilitate sense-making. Design in a social setting- characterized by negotiation, conflict, and agreement- sparks the frame restructuring required to coordinate disparate agendas through organizational learning. Designing within the 'collective memory' and supplemented by the theory of type, design can leverage its potential to enlighten and improve organizational culture. Beginning with what designers share, the practices of Louis Kahn demonstrate cultivating an 'archi-type'- form containing both cultural and architectural knowledge. To imbue each with 'good' form, the architects collaboratively creating organizational space to direct architectural form and redirect cultural action. By seeking shared understanding through form, architectural design stimulates organizational reflection, learning, and agreement. Implanting these virtues occurs by an architectural design process stimulating the emergence of culture though 'bricolage' - the synthesis of current and future concerns with an omnipresent past to guide daily interaction. As form emerges, the architect encourages an organization to reassess the frames circumscribing its cultural activity. Heightening the appreciation and awareness of culture instills communal practices of cooperation, respect, and learning. To achieve such acumen and influence, however, requires 'reframing' our professional agenda to reinvigorate the cultural significance of architecture and the design process.