Designraums

Designraums are spaces dedicated to design work, a term commonly used in German-speaking contexts to describe studios, laboratories, classrooms, or other rooms where design activities take place. The concept treats the physical or virtual environment as an active component of the design process, enabling collaboration, exploration, and rapid prototyping. Designraums can exist within universities, corporate campuses, design agencies, or community centers, and may be dedicated to product design, graphic design, interaction design, or service design.

Typical features of Designraums include flexible or modular layouts, whiteboards or glass walls for sketching, seating arrangements that support group work, and access to prototyping tools or digital fabrication equipment. They often host collaborative workflows such as design thinking, co-creation workshops, and user-centered testing. In educational settings, designraums support hands-on learning, interdisciplinary projects, and critique sessions.

The concept gained prominence with the rise of design thinking and user-centered design in business and academia. In recent years, the idea has merged with the maker movement and innovation labs, leading to a spectrum of spaces from formal studios to open-access makerspaces and hybrid virtual-design rooms.

See also: design studio, innovation lab, makerspace, design thinking.