Organizational clients and architectural communities of practice: Material and social construction at the Chrysler Technology Center

Large organization clients increasingly set the agenda and standards for architectural practice. Hence, there is a blurring of traditional boundaries between client and architect. Growing numbers of client-situated architects work as in-house employees of large client organizations, engage in long-term consulting relationships with them, and participate in client-sponsored team-based associations, such as project partnering. To understand better the nature of client-situated practice, this ethnographic study examines architects who work in and around the Big Three of the U.S. automobile industry. The investigation occurs at two levels. At the macro-level of institutions, the study examines how practices in the automobile industry have historically influenced and continue to influence the strategies and actions of architects who serve the Big Three. Findings suggest that automobile industry practices pervade architectural work to such an extent that the architects design and build buildings in the same way as their respective companies design and build cars. At the micro-level of situated action, the case study examines how Chrysler Corporation's adoption of lean production strategies, which are associated with the Japanese automobile industry, manifested in the everyday practices of the architects and other design and construction professionals who managed building design and construction at the Chrysler Technology Center. In keeping with a lean production philosophy, the architectural community of practice was organized as a project partnering team that promotes collaboration and relational sensemaking in order to counteract confrontational and litigious tendencies associated with traditional construction. Though project partnering provided an ideological framework and practical stance that enabled the accomplishment of their work, everyday practice presented challenges that impelled the architects and others to resort, despite their rhetoric, to entrained confrontational behaviors. Frequent breaches of relational trust required ongoing repair. Overall, the study suggests both lessons for the implementation of project partnering and the benefits of a broader conception of the profession that recognizes the challenges and opportunities faced by client-situated. Such a perspective would prove beneficial to both the profession and the education of future architects.