The right story at the right time

In response to the lack of systematic study of architectural practice, the Building Stories methodology propounds storytelling as a vehicle for studying active cases, i.e., projects that are in the process of being designed and built. The story format provides a dense, compact way to deal with and communicate the complex reality of a real-world project, while respecting the interrelated nature of events, people and circumstances that shape its conception. With an eye to establishing a valuable knowledge resource of and for the profession, the paper explores how stories can be stored, organized and accessed so as to turn the growing story repository into a convenient instrument for students, educators and practitioners.