Experimental Zone: An Interdisciplinary Investigation on the Spaces and Practices of Collaborative Research

Experimental Zone documents a remarkable experiment in spatial research at the Interdisciplinary Laboratory Image Knowledge Gestaltung at Berlin’s Humboldt University. Every two months, for four years, researchers reconfigured a 350-square metre workspace for forty scientists. The design-based, collaborative experiment’s focus was on the interrelation of space and knowledge production: what spatial qualities are required by interdisciplinary teams for their research work? With some 300 striking and straightforward graphics, Experimental Zone presents the findings of the experiment. It highlights the spatial conditions under which individual and collaborative research unfold, overlap, or merge, and reveals the characteristics of an architecture that fosters interdisciplinary collaboration. The experiment’s innovative interdisciplinary approach is also reflected in the book’s design, with each of the five chapters and the comprehensive visual material reflecting publishing traditions in publishing design, architecture, and the humanities.
AUTHORS: Severine Marguin is a sociologist at Technische Universitat Berlin. Henrike Rabe is an architect and researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin. Friedrich Schmidgall is a designer at Einstein Center Digital Future in Berlin.
171 colour, 11 b/w illustrations