Buildings in the making: a sociological exploration of architecture in the context of health and social care

这项研究有两个相互关联的目的。一是发展对建筑师日常工作的社会学理解，二是阐明关于健康和社会护理的知识是如何，毫不含糊地，被设计成用于护理的建筑。建筑师不是健康和社会护理专业人员，但他们受雇创造可以进行护理的建筑物。因此，更好地了解他们的工作方式以及他们对设计和提供护理的贡献，为研究提供了一条新的途径。这项研究是由一个研究小组领导的，他们正在开发一系列关于建筑社会学的项目。我们之前在玛吉中心的工作为护理部门的建筑研究提供了一个出发点。Maggie's是一家为癌症患者提供非正式支持中心的慈善机构。由建筑从业者创立的Maggie’s与建筑师有着独特的关系，他们在设计中被赋予了很大的范围和自主权。然而，他们的客户-专业关系是非典型的，护理行业的建筑师面临着多种商业和监管限制。因此，玛吉的研究为我们在主流环境下对建筑师工作的民族志调查提供了一个比较点，在主流环境下，护理建筑是由私人、公司、慈善机构和国家供应商委托的。为了构建民族志，对建筑师的定性访谈（n = 10）将涵盖他们在商业、慈善和公共环境中设计养老院和痴呆症中心等建筑时面临的问题和挑战。一位有成就的研究人员随后将“进入该领域”，与一家建筑公司的设计师团队一起工作18个月。该公司被选中是因为其在卫生和社会保健领域的广泛项目组合。重点将放在调试、规划、概念和建筑技术设计的过程中。实地工作将包括采访建筑师、委员、运营商、规划师和服务用户。研究小组将查阅文献资料（例如建筑简介、透视图、政策指引和规范），并观察会议和实地考察。我们将讨论以下问题：如何协商和操作架构概要？商业、护理和设计方面的考虑是否会引起冲突？最初的设计概念是否被修改，为什么？哪些护理指南和设计模型导入到设计过程中？如何配置用户？关于护理需求的知识来源是什么？它们如何转化为设计的材料？通过我们对工作实践的详细观察，我们也将产生对建筑工艺的见解，以及在商业化护理部门设计工作的复杂性和紧张关系。该项目以医学社会学和科学技术研究（STS）的理论观点为依据，这些观点假定健康和医学知识的建构性质以及技术人工制品的延展性。通过打开建筑调试和交付之间的“黑盒子”，该研究将揭示基于证据的健康和社会护理知识融入设计的方式，以及阻碍或加强这些过程的因素。调查结果将分发给学术、专业、政策和从业人员。我们将建立一个英国社会学协会的“建筑社会学”研究小组。为了确保影响延伸到学术界之外，我们将与我们的专业合作者合作，思考如何将我们的发现用于他们的实践。我们将邀请从业者和政策制定者参加一系列主题研讨会，设计一个展台，在“英国护理展”上展示我们的研究成果，并举办项目结束宣传活动。

This study has two interrelated aims. One to develop a sociological understanding of the day to day work of architects and two, to cast light on the way knowledge about health and social care is, quite literally, engineered into buildings designed for care. Architects are not health and social care professionals, but they are employed to create buildings within which care can take place. A better understanding of their ways of working and their contribution to the design and delivery of care therefore offers a novel path for research.The study is led by a research team who are developing a suite of projects on the sociology of architecture. Our previous work on Maggie's Centres provides a point of departure for this study of architecture in the care sector. Maggie's is a charity that provides informal support centres for people living with cancer. Founded by architectural practitioners, Maggie's has a distinctive relationship with its architects who are given significant scope and autonomy in their designs. However, their client-professional relationship is atypical, and architects in the care sector face multiple commercial and regulatory constraints. Thus the Maggie's study provides a point of comparison for our ethnographic investigation into the work of architects in mainstream settings where buildings for care are commissioned by a mosaic of private, corporate, charitable, and state providers. To frame the ethnography, qualitative interviews with architects (n = 10) will scope issues and challenges that they face when designing buildings such as care homes and dementia centres in commercial, charitable and public contexts. An accomplished researcher will then 'enter the field' to work alongside teams of designers in an architectural firm for 18 months. The firm was selected because of their extensive portfolio of projects in the health and social care sector. Attention will be given to the processes of commissioning, planning, concept and technical design of buildings in the making. Fieldwork will involve interviewing architects, commissioners, operators, planners, and service users. The research team will examine documentary sources (e.g. architectural briefs, perspective renderings, policy guidelines and specifications), and observe meetings and site visits. We will address questions such as: How are architectural briefs negotiated and operationalised? Do commercial, care and design considerations give rise to conflicts? Are original design concepts modified and why? Which care guidelines and design models are imported into the design process? How are users configured? What types of knowledge about the care needs are sourced and how are they translated into the materiality of design? Through our detailed observations of working practices we will also generate insights into the architectural craft and the complexities and tensions of design work in the commercialised sectors of care. The project is informed by theoretical perspectives from medical sociology and science and technology studies (STS) that presume the constructed nature of health and medical knowledge and the malleability of technological artefacts. By opening the 'black box' between the commissioning of buildings and their delivery, the study will shed new light on the way evidence based knowledge of health and social care is woven into design, as well as factors that hinder or enhance these processes. Findings will be disseminated to academic, professional, policy and practitioner audiences. We will establish a British Sociological Association 'sociology of architecture' study group. To ensure impact extends beyond academia we will work with our professional collaborators to reflect on how our findings may be used alter to their practice. We will invite practitioners and policy makers to a series of themed symposia, design a stand to exhibit our findings at the 'British Care Shows', and host an end of project dissemination event.