Discussing her research on value creation by architects with people from other disciplines, the researcher noticed she had to explain a lot on values. She realised that although the same word was used – values – it had different meanings and implications in different contexts. Values can refer to ideals of people, and as guiding principles influence their choices; but also as qualities that can be co-created and that represent a certain amount of worth. When actors from diverse disciplines collaborate, an awareness of these different perspectives towards values can help to find common ground and avoid miscommunication or confusion in the co-creation process.

By integrating theories from multiple scholarly domains and complementing this with information on how values are being used in practice, the researcher is therefore building a framework that maps out different types of values for various perspectives. Testing the framework in an interdisciplinary project meeting showed that the focus on values created insight and understanding for the positions and actions of the team members. Leading the team to conclude they should have discussed values more explicit and earlier in the collaboration process.