The running of a 2-week international summer school opened up the opportunity to carry out a systematic experiment on spatial conditioning and priming. The very setup was closely surveyed by researchers of knowledge architecture TU Dresden regarding two central parameters of collaborative group work: 1) creative production, as the goal of the summer school was the creation of new concepts on future urbanism; 2) spatial arrangement, as the space in case was a large open office, allowing for multiple re-arrangements of spatial elements (e.g. furniture, work groups, technical equipment) and types of use (presentation mode, concentration modes). Creative Production: The 2-week workshop design comprised various individual and group activities in different spatial settings (single cabinets, work group arrangement, or presentation and panel settings), and has led to the production of 50 co–created ideas by the 20 summer school participants. These ideas were eventually developed into three different formats: project sketches (3), paper sketches (4), and proposal sketches (4). The summer school setting stated to be a starting point for long-lasting collaboration ships. Socio-spatial arrangement (Workshop Design) The 2-week event was video-recorded, thus allowing for time-lapse analysis of layout changes and utilization. Different, bevor developed, methods were now used to enhance co-creation under certain conditions. 1) constant conditions: time (2-weeks) and group constellation (20 members), and 2) adjustable condition: spatial work environment. From the analysis, parameters of spatial arrangement and group activity could be directly inferred, which in turn indicated “soft” social parameters like group spirit, trust and engagement. With the combination of data on the creative output on the one hand, and the data about socio-spatial arrangement on the other, the impact of purposefully designed work program and work environment on co-creation can be systematically tested and validated. A co-creation methodology is derived from this data-set.
