Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T10:48:14.385Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Towards a Processual Understanding of Buildings

Temporality, Materiality, and Politics

from Part III - New Ways of Organizing Work, Digitality and the Politics of Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2023

François-Xavier de Vaujany
Affiliation:
Universite Paris Dauphine-PSL
Robin Holt
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
Albane Grandazzi
Affiliation:
Grenoble Ecole de Management
Get access

Summary

Drawing on a combined ethnographic and historical case study of BLOX, a landmark building in Copenhagen, this chapter advances a processual understanding of buildings by exploring the intersection between materiality, temporality, and politics. We analyze organizing processes unfolding between the material building and public, private, and philanthropic organizations. We distinguish between three dimensions of the building’s material temporality, which we analyze drawing on an event-based approach: historicizing the building through time, projecting the building over time, and enacting the building in time. While the ‘projecting’ and ‘enacting’ dimensions are inspired by prior work on material temporality, our study adds the ‘historicizing’ dimension. We develop an empirical model showing the interplay between these three dimensions. A main implication of our study is to show how the organizing effects of material buildings emerge not only from their material durability, but also from their temporal malleability. In closing, we discuss implications for a temporal understanding of affordances and propose a temporally relational view of affordances.

Type
Chapter
Information
Organization as Time
Technology, Power and Politics
, pp. 229 - 255
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alimadadi, S., Davies, A., & Tell, F. (2021). A palace fit for the future: Desirability in temporal work. Strategic Organization, 20(1), 2050. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/14761270211012021Google Scholar
Benner, T. (2018, April 28). Realdania: Vi havde ikke bygget Blox i dag. Politiken. https://politiken.dk/kultur/arkitektur/art6474412/Realdania-Vi-havde-ikke-bygget-Blox-i-dagGoogle Scholar
Beyes, T. & Holt, R. (2020). The topographical imagination: Space and organization theory. Organization Theory. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2631787720913880Google Scholar
Blagoev, B., Felten, S., & Kahn, R. (2018). The career of a catalogue: Organizational memory, materiality and the dual nature of the past at the British Museum (1970–Today). Organization Studies, 39(12), 1757–83. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840618789189Google Scholar
Brand, S. (1994). How Buildings Learn: What Happens after They’re Built. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Cnossen, B. & Bencherki, N. (2019). The role of space in the emergence and endurance of organizing: How independent workers and material assemblages constitute organizations. Human Relations, 72(6), 1057–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726718794265Google Scholar
Comi, A. & Whyte, J. (2018). Future making and visual artefacts: An ethnographic study of a design project. Organization Studies, 39(8), 1055–83. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840617717094Google Scholar
Danish Architecture Center. (2020). About us. https://dac.dk/en/about/Google Scholar
de Vaujany, F-X. , Mitev, N., Laniray, P., & Vaast, E. (eds.) (2014). Materiality and Time: Historical Perspectives on Organizations, Artefacts and Practices. Basingstoke, UK & New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vaujany, F-X. & Vaast, E. (2014). If these walls could talk: The mutual construction of organizational space and legitimacy. Organization Science, 25(3), 713–31. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2013.0858CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Decker, S. (2014). Solid intentions: An archival ethnography of corporate architecture and organizational remembering. Organization, 21(4), 514–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508414527252Google Scholar
Design Society. (2020). Design Society. https://designsociety.dk/english/Google Scholar
Elsbach, K. D. & Pratt, M. G. (2007). The physical environment in organizations. The Academy of Management Annals, 1(1), 181224. https://doi.org/10.1080/078559809Google Scholar
Feddersen, J. (2020). The Temporal Emergence of Social Relations: An Event-based Perspective of Organising (PhD thesis). Copenhagen Business School. https://research.cbs.dk/en/publications/the-temporal-emergence-of-social-relations-an-event-based-perspecGoogle Scholar
Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Giovannoni, E. & Napier, C. J. (2022). Multimodality and the messy object: Exploring how rhetoric and materiality engage. Organization Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406221089598Google Scholar
Giovannoni, E. & Quattrone, P. (2018). The materiality of absence: Organizing and the case of the incomplete cathedral. Organization Studies, 39(7), 849–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840617708005Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. (1927). Being and Time. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Hernes, T. (2004). The Spatial Construction of Organization. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamin.Google Scholar
Hernes, T. (2014). A Process Theory of Organization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hernes, T. (2016). Process as the Becoming of Temporal Trajectory. In Langley, A. & Tsoukas, H. (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Process Organization Studies (pp. 601–7). London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473957954.n38Google Scholar
Hernes, T. (2022). Organization and Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hernes, T., Feddersen, J., & Schultz, M. (2021). Material temporality: How materiality ‘does’ time in food organizing. Organization Studies, 42(2), 351–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840620909974Google Scholar
Hernes, T. & Schultz, M. (2020). Translating the distant into the present: How actors address distant past and future events through situated activity. Organization Theory. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2631787719900999Google Scholar
Hussenot, A., Hernes, T., & Bouty, I. (2020). Studying Organization from the Perspective of the Ontology of Temporality: Introducing the Events-Based Approach. In Reinecke, J., Suddaby, R., Langley, A., & Tsoukas, H. (eds.), Time, Temporality, and History in Process Organization Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198870715.003.0005Google Scholar
Hussenot, A. & Missonier, S. (2016). Encompassing stability and novelty in organization studies: An events-based approach. Organization Studies, 37(4), 523–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840615604497Google Scholar
Ifversen, K. R. S. (2018, April 25). Skal fremme interessen for arkitektur: Blox er blevet et misfoster. Politiken. https://politiken.dk/kultur/arkitektur/art6469098/Blox-er-blevet-et-misfosterGoogle Scholar
Jones, C. & Massa, F. G. (2013). From novel practice to consecrated exemplar: Unity temple as a case of institutional evangelizing. Organization Studies, 34(8), 1099–136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840613492073CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kania, J. & Kramer, M. (2011). Collective impact. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 11(1), 3641.Google Scholar
Katz, B. & Noring, L. (2017). The Copenhagen City and Port Development Corporation: A Model for Regenerating Cities. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Latour, B. & Yaneva, A. (2008). Give Me a Gun and I Will Make All Buildings Move: An ANT’s View of Architecture. In Staub, U. & Geiser, R. (eds.), Explorations in Architecture: Teaching, Design, Research (pp. 80–9). Basel: Birkhäuser.Google Scholar
Leonardi, P. M. (2013). Theoretical foundations for the study of sociomateriality. Information and Organization, 23(2), 5976. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2013.02.002Google Scholar
Leonardi, P. M. (2016). Materiality as an Organizing Process: Toward a Process Metaphysics for Material Artifacts. In Langley, A. & Tsoukas, H. (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Process Organization Studies (pp. 529–42). London:Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473957954.n1Google Scholar
Leonardi, P. M. (2017). Methodological Guidelines for the Study of Materiality and Affordances. In Mir, R. & Jain, S. (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Qualitative Research in Organization Studies (pp. 279–90). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315686103.ch15Google Scholar
Louisiana Channel. (2018, May 2). Ellen van Loon interview: Contaminating architecture. https://vimeo.com/267581418Google Scholar
Mair, J. & Hehenberger, L. (2014). Front-stage and backstage convening: The transition from opposition to mutualistic coexistence in organizational philanthropy. Academy of Management Journal, 57(4), 1174–200.Google Scholar
Martinussen, K. & Weiss, K. L. (2018). Towards the Architecture Centre of the 21st Century. In Weiss, K. L. (ed.), BLOX (pp. 154–60). Copenhagen: Realdania.Google Scholar
Møller, J. N. (2009). Penge til husene. Copenhagen: Realdania.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. & Scott, S. V. (2008). Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. The Academy of Management Annals, 2(1), 433–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520802211644Google Scholar
Petani, F. J. & Mengis, J. (2016). In search of lost space: The process of space planning through remembering and history. Organization, 23(1), 7189. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508415605102Google Scholar
Realdania (2015). Bryghusprojektet bliver til BLOX (Press release). https://realdania.dk/projekter/blox/nyheder/bryghusprojektet-bliver-til-bloxGoogle Scholar
Realdania (ed.) (2018). BLOX: Denmark’s World of Architecture, Design and New Ideas. Realdania. https://blox.dk/media/1363/blox-pixie-book.pdfGoogle Scholar
Skovbro, A. & Weiss, K. L. (2018). BLOX from the Inside Out. In Weiss, K. L. (ed.), BLOX (pp. 145–53). Copenhagen: Realdania.Google Scholar
Slavich, B., Svejenova, S., Opazo, M. P. & Patriotta, G. (2020). Politics of meaning in categorizing innovation: How chefs advanced molecular gastronomy by resisting the label. Organization Studies, 41(2), 267–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619835268Google Scholar
Taylor, S. & Spicer, A. (2007). Time for space: A narrative review of research on organizational spaces. International Journal of Management Reviews, 9(4), 325–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2007.00214.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thau, C. (2018). Near and Far in the City: The Building as Urban Nerve Centre. In Weiss, K. L. (ed.), BLOX (pp. 97112). Copenhagen: Realdania.Google Scholar
van Loon, E. & Weiss, K. L. (2018). City in a Box. In Weiss, K. L (ed.), BLOX (pp. 4964). Copenhagen: Realdania.Google Scholar
Wainwright, O. (2018, May 1). Urban jumble: The building that wants to upset the calm of Copenhagen. The Guardian. https://theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/may/01/blox-danish-architecture-centre-copenhagenGoogle Scholar
Weinfurtner, T. & Seidl, D. (2019). Towards a spatial perspective: An integrative review of research on organisational space. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 35(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2018.02.003Google Scholar
Yaneva, A. (2009). The Making of a Building: A Pragmatist Approach to Architecture. Oxford & New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×