Construcao

Design
ambitions
and
logics
in
construction
–
a
performative
 approach

Susse
Georg,
Tor
Hernes
and
Kjell
Tryggestad

 Copenhagen
Business
School,
Department
of
Organization
and
Center
for
 Management
Studies
of
the
Building
Process.

 
 
 
 Abstract
 Skyscrapers
are
often
often
seen
as
powerful
symbols
and
important
symbols
of
power;
views
 which
generally
render
the
skyscraper
as
nothing
more
than
a
passive
object
representing
 people’s
design
ambitions.
Rather
than
continue
in
this
representational
vein,
the
paper
develops
 a
performative
approach
emphasizing
the
role
of
materiality
in
constructing
design
ambitions.
 Based
on
a
case
study
of
the
construction
of
a
skyscraper
in
Sweden,
“The
Turning
Torso”,
we
 show
how
personal
and
collective
design
ambitions
are
transformed
and
even
scaled
up
and
down
 as
the
materialization
of
the
building
poses
new
and
unexpected
design
requirements.
We
trace
 how
an
object
of
art,
“The
twisting
Torso”
–
as
depicted
in
sculptures,
drawings
and
pictures
–
 morphs,
circulates
in
the
hands
of
others,
and
participates
in
the
construction
of
not
only
 architectural
design
ambitions
and
the
skyscraper,
“The
Turning
Torso,”
but
also
in
the
 construction
of
a
design
strategy
for
urban
and
regional
renewal/identity.
Articulating
and
 representing
the
future
in
the
present
and
by
persuading
others
to
act
accordingly
“The
Twisting
 Torso”
is
considered
as
a
device
active
in
folding
time,
space,
ambitions
and
identities,
whilst
“The
 Turning
Torso”
in
the
course
of
its
construction
not
only
shaped
design
ambitions,
it
also
–
de
 facto
–
shaped
important
cultural
understandings
and
practices
concerning
living
standards,
 citizenship,
professional
roles
and
identity,
i.e.
the
project’s
institutional
context
and
logics.

 

1
 


Introduction
 How
do
design
ambitions
emerge?
The
literature
is
replete
with
references
to
how
important
the
 architect’s
ambition
is
for
a
building’s
design
and
scope,
and
as
such
ambitions
reside