Spaces of Knowing: Co-creating Embedded Architectural Research Through Everyday Encounters

Abstract

The accelerating impacts of climate change disproportionately affect low-income and marginalized groups, including residents of self-organized housing in the Caribbean. This paper examines how embedding architectural research through everyday encounters can co-create socially useful and locally grounded knowledge. Drawing on a participatory action research project in self-organized housing on St. Martin, which combined structured research activities-interviews, co-creative sessions, and workshops-with unstructured activities, this paper focuses on the latter: sustained informal engagement though everyday encounters using the "deep hanging out" method. These encounters occurring in spaces of knowing such as shops, neighbourhood bars, and porches revealed tacit skills, incremental building practices, and socioeconomic dynamics shaping housing resilience-insights often overlooked in structured research activities. Informal engagement helped flatten hierarchies, build trust, and often led to formal participation. The findings show how everyday encounters can strengthen reflection and facilitate the co-creation of contextually relevant, climate resilient housing knowledge and design solutions.