A space for crossing boundaries

Recently visited Whitespace at the University of Abertay, Dundee. This converted building was opened in 2007, and is intended as a hub for activities bringing together Computer Arts students, PhD students, lecturers, business clients, broadcasters and artists. As well as educational sessions, the space contains in-house graphics and digital media teams providing professional services,  new business start-up units and state-of-the-art digital media suites - all of which offer the  potential to bring students, academics, practitioners and businesses together in many innovative, flexible and creative ways.  The space is zoned into different but overlapping and (mainly) open areas, each with their own spatial and aesthetic characteristics. 

Of course, this only works because the underlying roles, relationships and working practices of the various participants have also been re-orchestrated..... with very interesting implications for curriculum design and working/learning patterns. For me it really expressed what can happen when positive intersections between the campus and its community and business contexts - what the virtual world calls distributed creativity - are embedded into physical space.