ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author looks closely at the material affordances, that is, the floor plans, furnishings, and technology, in each of these buildings as they reflect current thinking among design consultancies about open plan workplaces aimed to accommodate creative collaboration. The author describes at new communication activities and genres that might emerge when scientists communicate in this enhanced material environment. The author offers preliminary findings from his visual research at the sites and interviews with users. Expectations for interdisciplinary scientific research in a university setting, however, as T. Gieryn showed and my research also suggests may not mesh well with the realities of scientific research as described, for example, by J. Rogers Hollingsworth, a sociologist of science at Wisconsin. The lab accommodates students and researchers in science, engineering, the liberal arts, and humanities. The Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Lab reflect design thinking, although more so in the larger of its two wings, called the "DuPont Interdisciplinary Science Learning Laboratories."
