Vibrant figures. Visual tools as mediators within the actor networks of the development of the built environment

The processes leading to the production of our built environment are constituted by numerous actors, but architectural drawings are often seen in these processes as passive intermediaries.

This article-based thesis presents architectural drawings as vibrant figures within the actor networks that constitute the development of the built environment. Using actor-network theory (ANT), the thesis explores these visual tools as technological mediators that influence projects. The methodological approach offers a triangulated inquiry across three articles, each examining different dimensions of drawings as mediators. Article I delves into the genealogy of a single drawing type. Article II provides an overview of the diverse roles and relational effects within project networks that architectural drawings can have. Article III explores the roles of drawings in a particular case, the Low2No project in Helsinki, and proposes a model for analysis for understanding the interplay of actors.

The results of the articles aim at answering the overarching questions: how can the relationality of the processes of the production of the built environment be described with ANT; and how can the mediating effects of visual tools as actors be described within an ANT framework? The thesis states that projects can be outlined as progressions of settings, where all the actors exert a type of agency; the relational effects visual tools have can be mapped out in advance; a visual tool is amenable for an analysis of its relations built in time. Furthermore, visual tools are described as technological objects that can be described by using concepts of technical mediation. The genealogies of visual tools provide understanding of the contingencies of their development and endurance as types.

In the discussion and conclusion, the implications of the results are outlined as: the fruitful examination of chains of translations between visual tools and their descriptions; the import of the entangled nature of visual tools as material media and systems of notation; a redefinition of the legacy of visual tools allowing for an understanding of durability and change; and a reflection on the creative potentials of the misuse of visual tools.