Knotworking In An Interior Décor Process

These days, new buildings are being built at Aalborg University in Denmark, why interior décor processes are initiated. Planning the interior décor of Aalborg University is centralized at the Shared Service Center, where internal architects furnish the spaces and buy the selected furniture without consulting the end user (Teknisk Forvaltning, 2015). ). But is it possible to make interior décor that fits the utilization of the building?To improve the interior décor process and make the interior décor fit the utilization of the building, the initiated idea was to implement the different interested end users of the spaces to be furnished, why new methods were needed.One method for integrating different actors in the same process at the same time is called Knotworking. In Knotworking ‘knots’ are pre-selected on the basis of the overall aspects of the specific project (Smith, 2010). ). The pre-selected ‘knots’ determine which specific actors that have to be involved in the project for ‘untying’ the ‘knots’. Knotworking has successfully been applied in different contexts such as the merge of public and university libraries in Finland in 2012 (Engeström et al., 2012) and the development of architectural building projects focusing on energy and cost calculations in 2013 (Kerosuo, Mäki, & Korpela, 2013). A knotworking session lasting only one and a half day was performed to test if it was possible to adopt the principles of Knotworking in an interior décor process. For collecting data on the knotworking days, the following methods have been utilized: Participant observation, video records from 4 angles of the room, observation, notes and photo documentation. Document analysis and activity theory systems have subsequently been utilized to analyse the data. At the knotworking session the pre-selected ‘knots’ were defined as the specific spaces to be furnished. To ‘untie’ the ‘knots’, the following actors were involved: The end-user being both the students, staff, cleaning staff, university caretaker, internal architects at Aalborg University and the furniture manufacturer. These actors had various interests in the specific spaces resulting in various reflections on the interior décor. The actors all gathered in the same room to solve the interior décor problems within the pre-selected spaces – the ‘knots’. Knotworking as a method was applied to implement the actors in the process, while touchscreen and Oculus Rifts were utilized as tools to ‘untie’ the ‘knots’. The Knotworking session resulted in a joint ownership of the interior décor and a mutual vocabulary concerning the interior décor. The presentation will describe how Knotworking were applied to the interior décor process, what happened before, under and after, and reflect upon if this method is applicable in future interior décor processes.