Variations of a Building

Variations of a Building tells the story of the making of a building. Based on a multi-sited ethnography of the building project for Aviva Studios (formerly, Factory) in Manchester, U.K., a theatre/cultural space designed by the architectural firm OMA, it explores the challenges of sharing in the act of creation by following the everyday practices of designers. Beyond the world of the architects, this book foregrounds a variety of other practices and realities at stake in the building, and offers a rare account of a building project from the point of view of the broader design and project team. More than the making of a building, it argues that it is also an experiment with, and reshaping of, a common world, showing what design practices and building projects can teach us about sharing in acts of creation and knowing. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of architecture, design, urban studies, Actor-Network Theory and Science and Technology Studies.

Brett Mommersteeg is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut für Europäische Ethnologie at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in Germany. He holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Manchester and a MA in Theory and Criticism from the University of Western Ontario. Previously, he was a teaching fellow at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh. His research draws on Actor-Network Theory and Science and Technology Studies with a focus on architecture, environmental issues, and sound studies.