Convivial Ground: Stories from Collaborative Spatial Practices

We are all improvising. We are all making decisions. And we are all watching each other improvise. Together, we are improvising. Decisions become shared ones. We will have built this city together.
Convivial Ground invites the reader to discover the work of the transdisciplinary European design-build network Constructlab piece by piece. Taking Ivan Illich’s understanding of conviviality as departure point, the essays, conversations, stories, and images in the book reflect on the specificities of collaborative practices as situated experiments, as well as on their possible roles in the creation of convivial societies. Exploring contemporary conditions of togetherness, learning, and working, the book is not a "how-to" guide, but an invitation to cooperatively write new convivial narratives.

The transdisciplinary design-build network constructlab takes a dynamic approach to uniting architectural concepts and construction with an emphasis on collaboration. Breaking with traditional divisions of labor, the organization engages a team of multi-talented designer-builders―as well as sociologists, urban planners, graphic designers, curators, educators, and web developers―who carry the creative process from the drafting table into the field, making it possible for designs to respond to the possibilities and constraints posed by materials, site, environment, and utilization.

Joanne Pouzenc is an architect, educator, and independent curator working on collaborative processes and learning environments through architecture, cultural production, and editorial work.

Alex Römer is an architect-carpenter based in Berlin. He initiated the idea of constructlab as a platform and interest group for design-build projects with an emphasis on sustainable and situated approaches within specific social contexts.

Peter Zuiderwijk is a designer based in The Hague who specializes in research- and process-based design, exhibition design, and scenography.