Public Cospaces

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to enable the development of public collaborative spaces, specifically within the context of public libraries. This research explored people's working conditions and existing collaborative spaces, in non-public areas. A participatory design approach was taken to get the perspective of the type of users within collaborative spaces. After incorporating the primary and secondary research together, four principles (Open, Flexible, Inspiring, and Practical) were developed as the key part of a conceptual framework. In addition, functions and properties are detailed variables within each principle. The principles, functions and properties combined will help enable productive collaboration within a public cospace.