Planning and Design Considerations for Computer Supported Collaboration Spaces

Abstract

Architects have long been aware of the need to design for the behaviors a space is meant to support. However, neither the seminal works on architectural programming or collaborative engineering address the linkages between physical environment design and collaborative work practice. This paper posits that the design of collaboration environments should stand as a third pillar of collaboration engineering, suggests four ways in which physical environment design and collaboration engineering might mutually inform the other, and specifies several dimensions of physical environment affordance collaboration engineers might consider when developing requirements for collaboration space.