Knowledge Sharing in Research Buildings and about their Design

organizational performance; co-presence; corporate real estate; workplace; layout Knowledge sharing is essential in present day society which is focused on innovation. Research driven organisations put a lot of effort in stimulating the knowledge exchange between their employees and are increasingly asking their Corporate Real Estate (CRE) managers to become involved in this process. They need to provide accommodation designed for people to meet and share knowledge, and look for architects to help them achieve this difficult goal. This paper will help them in two ways: 1) by showing in which way design can stimulate knowledge sharing in a research building, and 2) by making a contribution to the knowledge sharing between the parties involved in designing the workplaces of these research buildings. CRE managers and designers use a certain terminology to describe (their demands for) a design. They use several layout terms that are also used by CRE academics in their studies. These layout descriptions, however, do not provide quantitative information on how the design actually stimulates knowledge sharing and cannot be implemented straight into a design by the architect either, which can cause confusion and miscommunication. Space syntax variables do show quantifiabl