Boris Ewenstein

Editorial: Visual practices and the built environment

Visual and tangible materials such as plans, sections, models, sketches, photos and slide shows are the everyday focus of many knowledge-intensive activities in the design, construction and management of the built environment. If one can improve the social and organizational practices around them, then, as designers, one may improve the spaces and places in which our lives are lived. Therefore, for a moment imagine if, in the glance of an eye, one could understand what proposed new buildings and urban infrastructures would be like. Imagine if one could make visible the methods of their construction and the social and environmental implications of their use; and if one could see clearly how to reconfigure the old and how to create the new.