Contextual Knowledge in Design: the SisPro project

National audienceThis paper describes an ongoing research at the step of the development of the SisPro project, a web-based environment for distributed architecture/engineering/ construction teamwork. The project aims at the improvement teamwork performance allowing participants to team up and cooperate in projects by interacting remotely in a virtual environment. The SisPro environment takes advantage of information technology to permit people geographically apart to maintain a shared conception of a problem, in which knowledge is learned in applied situations. The notion of context in the acquisition of these types of knowledge is explored and it is explained how SisPro enables participants to structure contextual knowledge and partially share their individual's tacit knowledge. The paper concludes by highlighting some of SisPro features and adressing some issues for future development