Abstract
In this chapter we shall explore how skills pertaining to the use of architectural plans may be acquired through apprenticeship. The case presented below in based on an ethnographic study tracking an apprentice and an accomplished actor as they work with and annotate architectural plans in the process of planning construction work. We will explore how the apprentice struggles with this craft and is mentored by an accomplished actor in the process. The idea is that this investigative approach, this case, may highlight part of what an apprentice must learn in order to be able to engage in practices based on complex representational artifacts (an interest in apprenticeship shared partly with e.g. Ding 2008; Goodwin 1994; Oshri et al. 2006; Schulz 2008). In addition, the inquiry serves the purpose of underlining the phenomenon that working with complex representational artifacts such as architectural plans is an acquired skill.
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Notes
- 1.
KBK is the acronym for a subcontractor that was responsible for some elements of the roof construction.
- 2.
‘Roofing felt’ is also sometimes referred to as ‘asphalt roofing’.
- 3.
See also Schmidt (2002), p.453
- 4.
- 5.
The Highway Code, rev. ed. (London: HMSO, 1987), art. 133.
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Christensen, L.R. (2013). Apprenticeship and Visual Skills. In: Coordinative Practices in the Building Process. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4117-4_6
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