Collaborative Design Workshops: Evolution of a Workshop Method

In the Dutch Building Industry sub optimal use of knowledge by participants during the design- and engineering phase causes building damage and hinders innovative designs and solutions. Therefore the attitude, the mindset of the different design participants has to change as well as that they have to work on new skills. First experiments to find a format for supporting Design Collaboration, started in 2004 with workshops for design- teams including participants with the same educational background. In 2005, a first set up was done for design teams with participants with different educational backgrounds. These workshops are coupling a concrete task from practice and research focusing on the roofs where there is a lack of innovative designs, caused by a sub-optimal interaction between solutions and application in design practice. The process where professionals from different disciplines work together to design a (new) product is called Collaborative Design (CD). Based on the experiments in the period of 2006-2009 a workshop method was developed for stimulating professionals, Architects and Roofers, to work in collaborative design teams and to share, use and develop collectively specific information for innovative roofs. By using the Design Research Methodology a step by step approach for the development of the workshop-model is described. The result was a Collaborative Design Workshop that aims to support design activities using a specific design method – Morphological Overviews (MO). A team that uses this method is able to structure the design process concerning the information and knowledge exchange between and with commitment of all participants to optimize design solutions. The paper explains the evolution and the set up of the Collaborative Design Workshop as well as the final method. The first feed-back results by professionals related to the practical use and relevance of the Collaborative Design Workshop are discussed.