In their cooperative effort, architects depend critically on elaborate coordinative practices and artifacts. The article presents, on the basis of an in-depth study of architectural work, an analysis of these practices and artifacts and shows that they are multilaterally interrelated and form complexes of interrelated practices and artifacts which we have dubbed
ordering systems
. In doing so, the article outlines an approach to investigating and conceiving of such practices.
Keywords architectural work - classification - coordinative artifacts - common information spaces - indexation - nomenclatures - notations
This article draws on findings and analyses presented in articles published over the last couple of years (Schmidt and Wagner, 2002a; Schmidt and Wagner, 2002b; Schmidt and Wagner, 2003).