Conference article

Makerspaces and Fablabs are open access workshops that challenge traditional top-down approaches to innovation and workplace design dedicated to creative and innovative practices. Their built environments are the main stage where a complex ecology of stakeholders intertwine. To what extent does the interior design of a space make people more collaborative and innovative? What are the settings and platforms that may affect the way people feel, behave and interact? This paper presents the methodological journey of a PhD study conducted within 18 prominent Makerspaces located in five cities of Europe. The empirical study navigates the blurry boundaries of spatial design and organisational design, and the dynamic strategies employed to unleash patterns and congruencies, assuring the engagement and participation of the population researched. Through a constructive design approach denoted by the use of mixed methods from design thinking and qualitative ethnographic research, a Conceptual Framework is proposed bridging the interdependency of virtual and physical realms.

co-making environments, spatial design, organizational design, socially shaped innovation