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Resumo

Contemporary buildings of science and technology commonly aspire to break down boundaries between disciplines and expertise, seeking to stimulate interaction and exchange. Recent work within architectural studies has detailed how—through the design of incidental meeting areas, and open, shared laboratories and offices—these buildings intend to shape new collaborative technoscientific communities. Drawing upon an ethnographic study of the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) at the University of Manchester in 2019, this article explores the attempts to form a collaborative community capable of translating academic knowledge into industrial products and processes. Eschewing social or technical deterministic framings, and beyond quick readings of architectural space which may conflate openness as a spatial quality with openness as a value or form of exchange, the article unpacks the spatial nature of dynamics of collaboration and seclusion which are played out in the GEIC. It demonstrates that the task of bringing heterogeneous and often competitive actors into relation with one another necessitates the creation of spatial practices and physical infrastructures which serve to arrange and reinforce boundaries, maintaining control over flows of information. This, I argue, gains new significance when considering the integration between universities and industry, with knowledge reframed as a valuable commercial asset.

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