Designing for Discovery: How Makerspaces Advance Convergence Research
Innovation ecosystems thrive at the intersection of disciplines—and space design plays a pivotal role.
Makerspace learning is rooted in hands-on experimentation—learning through doing—with the goal of solving specific, real-world problems. Lessons often cross boundaries between academic departments, as ideas and expertise flow between disciplines and enrich the process of inquiry.1
This approach to learning closely mirrors the goals of convergence research, which brings together diverse knowledge, methods, and communities to solve pressing societal challenges.
Defined by the National Academies, convergence research is guided by four core principles: diversity, connectivity, resilience, and engagement. It seeks to solve specific, complex societal problem by deeply integrating knowledge, methods and communities across disciplines.2
In this light, makerspaces become powerful engines for both learning and innovation, fostering the same integrated systems thinking that convergence research demands:
- Makerspaces are built on open inquiry and problem-solving. At their core, they support investigations that are driven by curiosity—and enriched by a diversity of inputs, whether from individuals or interdisciplinary teams.
- Their design promotes connectivity and permeability, encouraging collaboration across departments and research domains as learners fabricate and assemble solutions to real-world challenges.
- These spaces are sites of opportunity, innovation, and resourcefulness—qualities that make them fundamentally agile and resilient. Their success depends on the ability to adapt, experiment, and iterate.
- Finally, the design thinking that underpins the maker movement emphasizes active engagement within a broader innovation ecosystem. The ideas and inventions sparked in these spaces often ripple outward, shaping technologies, communities, and economies.
At Goody Clancy, we’ve brought the ideas of convergence research to life in our convergence design approach to creating makerspaces—most recently, at the Innovation Maker Suite at Virginia Commonwealth University and the soon-to-open Design & Engineering Makerspaces at William & Mary.
An Innovation Ecosystem
The principles of convergence translate into an architecture of open, flexible spaces organized around a design lab that is not prescriptive in how it should be used. At VCU, we designed a makerspace that is flexible, nimble, and adaptable to evolving needs. The primary lab is flanked by highly technical machining zones for additive and subtractive manufacturing. These supporting spaces and tools enable a rapid leap from concept to prototype—and curiosity, supported by the right tools, is more likely to lead to innovation.
Diverse Backgrounds, Shared Purpose
The convergence principles of diversity and connectivity are expressed through the architecture of the Design and Engineering makerspaces at William & Mary. Designed to maximize openness and visibility, these spaces seek to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and amplify the community’s entrepreneurial efforts. They will bring together people with vastly different experiences around shared interests—sparking new ways of thinking, doing, and making. The design lab and material fabrication labs in ISC4 are the final program pieces which, when paired with the interdisciplinary research labs and instruction space in the building, will create a more resilient research and innovation system. The addition of these new resources helps build connective pathways within, and helps students and faculty collaborate and engage at, different points along that innovation system.
As Jonathan Frey, Director of Makerspaces at William & Mary, writes:
Within the maker environment, you have individuals of diverse backgrounds coming together in open spaces to work on solving specific problems. Oftentimes this is coupled with hands-on machine usage and manufacturing. When these two things are brought together—an open, diverse group of people and access to resources they typically would not have—the communal intuitions of the community as a whole flourish.
Design that Welcomes Everyone
While makerspaces need some degree of access control for safety, it is imperative that they are open and inviting to students that are traditionally outside the maker community. The design/maker lab should be positioned prominently so that the activity inside is highly visible and potentially engaging to all students. The spaces must be designed with architecturally durable materials, be served by robust infrastructure and overhead services, and be animated by ample daylight.
A Future-Facing Vision
Ultimately, makerspaces are more than fabrication labs. They are convergence platforms for discovery, connectivity, resilience, and engagement—and they thrive when aligned with the broader innovation goals of their institutions. To again quote Jonathan Frey:
The engineer or scientist of the future is not one who spent their entire life over-specializing within one small subset of science. The STEM practitioner of the future is one who has a well-developed trivium and quadrivium such that they can learn how to use any modern tool of automation on their own. It is in this light that the maker environment serves us all.
By designing with intentionality, architects and institutions can elevate these spaces from tool-filled rooms to catalysts of interdisciplinary impact—where the next generation of thinkers, makers, and problem-solvers come together to shape a better tomorrow.
2 https://new.nsf.gov/funding/learn/research-types/learn-about-convergence-research
