DESIGN-WITH: THE ARCHITECT AS A 'NETWORK-AUTHOR' IN MOTION

The Actor-Network Theory (ANT) was developed by sociology studies of science and technology and has been applied to other fields, such as architecture. However, there are still difficulties in understanding and implementing of the concepts proposed, mainly because of its innovative character. Thus, this article reflects on the architectural project, especially concerning design, proposing an approach from the notions of the theory. Considering the design process features extracted from architectural research literature, we propose to consider the project as a collective construction, where human and non-human actively articulate, being both problem and solution. In this case, the architect is an “network-author”, because the project authorship is more linked to the translation capacity of the architect than to the object design itself, recognizing the agency of other actors. About the process, the proposal is to be aware of the actions that occur in practice, watching the strategies used to incorporate requirements, translations carried out by the architect. It is about looking less for the product and more for its construction. What considers also the building as a moving project, a continuous stream of changes.