This is a CTP of initiative: DESIS - DESIS Lab Belo Horizonte (Brazil)
The School of Design in UEMG (The State University of Minas Gerais) has Difficulty in providing physical space so many groups do not have their own laboratory to work in.
Before 2012, the DESIS lab (CedTEc) occupied a very small room within another laboratory. "The space was so small that we had to schedule times. One could only go in if someone came out”.
There was no feeling of belonging towards the space where the lab was located, in the words of the interviewee, it seemed like they were intruders in that environment: "When the laboratory personnel who owned the room wanted to use all the rooms, we needed to leave, it did not matter if we were working or not. We had nowhere to keep our material; it was not really our space. "The change took place in January 2012. "From that time the team began to grow, because we had an inviting space, because we had the material and had a group place to discuss and work together."
This process generated more group integration and a sense of belonging, so it is considered a CTP.
To get a place in the university one needs to make contacts and work with internal politics. "There are many, many groups competing for the same room."
The DESIS Lab group had existed for two years when it got its physical space at the School of Design. This was due to construction work that set up new and very large rooms for more consolidated groups who began to occupy these new rooms, leaving the old ones free for smaller and less prestigious groups within the school, such as DESIS.
The interviewee explains the relationship with the university regarding the use of space:"It was not because they like us that they gave us the room, it was because they made a better room for whom was originally occupying this one. Also, they thought about giving the room to the doctorate students, but the teacher responsible for the DESIS Lab was coordinator of the doctorate at that time and arranged it in our favor, so we had some political influence in the decision to give the room to the DESIS Lab "
2010 - Creation of the DESIS Lab. In the year of 2010 the laboratory began its activities without owning a physical space in the School of Design
2010 – The Desis Lab occupies a room inside another laboratory. When they started their activities it was important to have a place to meet and work, so they were given a small room inside another laboratory. They did not have places to archive things or even to leave documents or such items.
2012 – DESIS Lab moved to a new room. In the beginning of 2012 they moved to the new room, which they still occupy now.
2012- ongoing – Growth in number participants and number of projects.The space change also impacted the number of people involved and the number of projects the laboratory could work on simultaneously. Nowadays the physical space is becoming small considering the number of people involved in its activities.
The group that previously occupied the room had already gained the new room but still took things to the old room. The interviewee said that the group began to use the two rooms with the excuse that they were organizing the files and just wanted to take the necessary ones.
Thus, this group delayed the change of space of the DESIS Lab for nearly 6 months because the DESIS could not relocate their things as the previous group still had things in the room.
The new accommodation and the sense of belonging made the work progress, as the interviewee explains: “We bother many people here. I do not know if it's envy of the way we work, which is more relaxed, even more productive. Furthermore, we are the most productive group in number of papers produced and we generate a lot of visibility for the school. I think it bothers other laboratories that insist on stopping or delaying minimal things, as was the case”.
When they moved into the room, there was an expectation to make a larger team, to build a space that would bring identity to the group and where many projects could be developed in a close and collaborative way. And this indeed happened.
Over time, the group has really grown a lot and now the space is already too small to accommodate all participants of the DESIS Lab: "When we have a general meeting, we need to open the door and some people have to stay outside, standing, because there is not enough space for everyone to sit in the room. We did not expect that the space would become too small for us so fast ".
The main learning is that it is important to have an exclusive space for the group to build identity and a sense of belonging for the participants.The motivation to work and the result of the job itself changed positively, according to the interviewee.
Also, interestingly, she pointed out that the size of the space is not definitive regarding the quality or quantity of work produced in a laboratory. According to her, many big laboratories do not have such a good delivery rate as the DESIS Lab within the School of Design, while they, in a small room, can produce more than enough.
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