Spatial design + service design: Framing a transdisciplinary perspective

Design-driven praxis aimed at the transformation of spaces in relation to so- cial and relational practices confront design researchers with the need to develop transdisciplinary approaches. If, on one side, it is impossible to envision a space with- out its subject matter – encounters, relations, and interactions between human and non-human entities –, on the other any type of service designed to be part of that place relies on a spatial dimension and its material reality is inevitably influences. This assumption raises questions for the design discipline: what happens when the design of spaces and services is intertwined? How can we design the service interaction through the spatial definition? Albeit apparently simple, the relationship between Spa- tial Design and Service Design still hasn't been fully explored, and this paper aims to contribute filling this gap through a preliminary framework as means to explore a pos- sible scenario of Spatial Design + Service Design (S+S). The paper presents S+S as a potential approach to designing spaces and delivering services as a single entity. In this scenario, the separation of disciplinary design areas ceases, and a design approach emerges, where places and social practices are fully interconnected