{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T23:35:13Z","timestamp":1777937713398,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":13,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"7\/8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2011,8,9]],"date-time":"2011-08-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1312848000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2011,8,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to describe the various movements from abstraction to actuality in the context of design, with particular reference to architecture, first in terms of the design process and second in terms of the interpretation of architecture by observers.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper focuses on the designers' use of forms of representation, such as drawings, with reference to the cybernetic understanding of conversation. This account is then used to discuss the representational properties of architecture itself and to relate this back to the design process.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>It is argued that the forms of representation used by designers, such as drawings and physical models, have both abstract and actual properties and that this combination is important for their representational function. The ambiguity in the interpretation of drawings and models is not only useful in generating ideas but also appropriate given the ambiguity in the interpretation of the architecture they represent.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>The division between the abstract (understood in terms of representation) and the actual is challenged. A connection is proposed between architecture itself as a form of representation and the representation used in its design.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/03684921111160386","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,9,10]],"date-time":"2011-09-10T07:30:27Z","timestamp":1315639827000},"page":"1159-1165","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Conversing with drawings and buildings: from abstract to actual in architecture"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"40","author":[{"given":"Ben","family":"Sweeting","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b1","unstructured":"Evans, R. (1995), The Projective Cast: Architecture and Its Three Geometries, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA."},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b2","unstructured":"Evans, R. (1997), Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays, Architectural Association, London."},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b3","unstructured":"Gedenryd, H. (1998), How Designers Work, Making Sense of Authentic Cognitive Activities, Lund University Cognitive Studies No. 75, Lund University, Lund."},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Glanville, R. (1996), \u201cCommunication without coding: cybernetics, meaning and language (how language, becoming a system, betrays itself)\u201d, Modern Language Notes, Vol. 111 No. 3, pp. 441\u201062 (Wellbery, D. (Ed.)).","DOI":"10.1353\/mln.1996.0036"},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Glanville, R. (Ed.) (2007a), \u201cCybernetics and design\u201d, Kybernetes, Vol. 36 Nos 9\/10.","DOI":"10.1108\/03684920710827229"},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Glanville, R. (2007b), \u201cTry again. Fail again. Fail better: the cybernetics in design and the design in cybernetics\u201d, Kybernetes, Vol. 36 Nos 9\/10, pp. 1173\u2010206.","DOI":"10.1108\/03684920710827238"},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b9","unstructured":"Jencks, C. (1984), The Language of Post\u2010modern Architecture, 4th ed., Academy Editions, London."},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b10","unstructured":"Pask, G. (1971), \u201cA comment, a case history and a plan\u201d, in Reichardt, J. (Ed.), Cybernetics, Art and Ideas, Studio Vista, London, pp. 76\u201099."},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b11","unstructured":"Pask, G. (1976), Conversation Theory, Applications in Education and Epistemology, Elsevier, Amsterdam."},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b12","unstructured":"Vesely, D. (2004), Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation, the Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA."},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b13","unstructured":"Vesely, D. (2010), \u201cThe latent ground of the natural world: introduction to the communicative role of architecture\u201d, paper presented at the Communicative Role of Architecture, 21\u201022 June, Leicester School of Architecture, De Montfort University, Leicester, available at: www.dmu.ac.uk\/Images\/Dalibor%20Vesely%20Latent%20Ground%20final%20version_tcm6\u201062553.doc (accessed 5 July 2010)."},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b7","unstructured":"von Glasersfeld, E. (1984), \u201cAn introduction to radical constructivism\u201d, in Watzlawick, P. (Ed.), The Invented Reality, Norton, New York, NY, pp. 17\u201040, available at: www.univie.ac.at\/constructivism\/EvG\/cgi\u2010bin\/redirect.cgi?url=070.1.pdf (accessed 15 November 2008)."},{"key":"key2022021819455197900_b8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"von Glasersfeld, E. (1990), \u201cAn exposition of constructivism: why some like it radical in Davis\u201d, in Davis, R.B., Maher, C.A. and Noddings, N. (Eds), Constructivist Views on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Reston, VA, pp. 19\u201029, Journal for Research in Mathematics Education Monograph, Vol. 4.","DOI":"10.2307\/749910"}],"container-title":["Kybernetes"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emeraldinsight.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1108\/03684921111160386","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/03684921111160386\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/03684921111160386\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T23:27:22Z","timestamp":1753399642000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/k\/article\/40\/7-8\/1159-1165\/440870"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Ranulph","family":"Glanville","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2011,8,9]]},"references-count":13,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7\/8","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2011,8,9]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/03684921111160386"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/03684921111160386","relation":{},"ISSN":["0368-492X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0368-492X","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2011,8,9]]}}}