Living the (Co-Design) Lab

Abstract

Design research environments are becoming visible in many places, in universities, in design schools, in companies and in public organizations. What most of them have in common is a commitment to the exploration of the possible rather than the factual.

We have for several years been part of such an environment. A core concept of our programmatic practice has been the design laboratory. In this article we will position our work in the larger context of constructive design research.  First we will trace other ‘living labs’ that our particular design laboratory must link up to. Secondly we will make the claim that any programmatic design research needs a laboratory with instruments and techniques that match the program.