Designers in Teamworking

This paper reports an observation of communication in collaborative design by examining several historical cases of building design projects. It will present three cases of teamwork in architectural modelling. Each case provides a collection of drawings or illustrations that depict the artefacts being designed and constructed. Looking at the cases from the design as modelling perspective, two important factors of collaboration are observed: (1) the existence of multiple heterogeneous worlds of representation and action that members of a design team work with, and (2) the emergent correlation between common goals shared by all participants and domain-oriented goals pursued by individuals. Starting with the notions of common images and domain design developments derived from the case studies, we put forward explanations of the aspects of group dynamics in collaborative design. The current exposition concludes two generic patterns of teamwork in design, which suggest a spectrum of possibilities in developing communication and coordination supportive architecture.