Guiding Actions

Can we design who participates in the construction process?

 Embracing that the architect's role involves organizing labor, we can consider the gathering of stakeholders on a construction site as an extension of the architectural assembly. We can design who gets to participate, who gets credit, and who gets authorship. Advanced technology in construction is typically aligned with broader narratives of automation - perpetuating the goal of mechanizing and eventually displacing manual forms of labor. Alternatively, could we envision the inclusion of technology as a way to promote backstage labor to the foreground of architectural production? Under these terms, we design to register participants' contributions, enable and expand involvement, or reintroduce improvisation into otherwise standardized methods of construction.