Exploring Opportunities for Community Building in Atlas – the World’s Most Sustainable Education Building

Abstract

This paper explores the following research question: How to make the most of an academic community through norms,culture and practices within the academic environment? Fifteen semi-structured interviews with stakeholders of theDepartment of Industrial Design (ID) from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have been conducted in a case studythat aims to understand the approach knowledge workers have when navigating the university knowledge space to maximizebenefits of their local community. Thematic analysis has been performed and ten themes describing norms, culture andpractices within the environment emerged. The findings indicate that the conditions needed to facilitate community buildingin the university are contextual planning, on-time rich information and serendipitous interaction. The paper expands theliterature on university knowledge spaces by placing emphasis on community building and participatory communication inthe context of smart city infrastructure.

Keywords

• community building
• academic community
• knowledge space
• knowledge worker
• learning space
• corporate real estate management
• smart city infrastructure