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Space Design

Earlier this week we spoke about the need for office spaces to stimulate creativity and innovation. Today we’re excited to share our favourite creative work spaces from around the world…let us know what you think. Do you wish your work space was like one of these?


It is very important to bring context to the design of your office space – it must be relevant to the work your company does. Simply introducing some quirky furniture, a foosball table and using bright colours isn’t the answer; unless of course, that is what is relevant to your work!


Here are some offices that have designed creative work spaces that are relevant to what they do, nudging their inhabitants’ creativity in the direction of their respective companies’ cultures.


Pionen Data Center, Stockholm

The location of Pionen’s data center makes for a dramatic setting. When the company got hold of this space which used to be a nuclear shelter during the Cold War era, they didn’t miss the opportunity to create something truly ‘cool’.





Located 100 feet below ground, the office is like a space station, complete with greenhouses, artificial waterfalls and simulated daylight. In fact, the inspiration behind the design was 70’s sci-fi movies – the perfect setting for a ‘high security data center’!

This is a great example of a design that puts humans first and boosts employee morale, even though only around fifteen people work here.


Rather than just concentrating on technical hardware we decided to put humans in focus,… Of course, the security, power, cooling, network, etc, are all top notch, but the people designing data centers often (always!) forget about the humans that are supposed to work with the stuff.

– Jon Karlung, CEO at Bahnhof (the ISP behind Pionen)




If an office space whose conference room floor resembles that of the Moon, whose entrance door is 16 inches thick and can withstand the impact of a nuclear bomb doesn’t make you feel important, we don’t know what will!


Zynga

Social game developer Zynga definitely lives out their company culture at their headquarters in San Francisco. Their office plan has an atrium in the centre of this 6 storey building and open work desk layouts.





Everything about the space screams ‘social’ and ‘fun’. It allows for pet visitations and has an informal casual environment, which encourages creativity, and allows employees to feel comfortable in their own skin.





Rolex Learning Center

This one is not an office, but still is a work space in a sense, for students to learn, experiment and ideate. Part of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, The Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, houses one of Europe’s largest scientific libraries (with over 500,000 printed works), a cafe and food court, workspaces, a multi purpose hall and a bookshop amongst other things.





Designed by Japanese architectural duo SANAA, this unusual, undulating building is evocative of the way humans interact and learn.


Human movements are are not linear, like the way a train moves, but curve in a more organic way.
With straight lines we can only create a crossroads, but with curves we can create more diverse interactions.

– Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA


The open design integrates with the idea of continuous discovery and endless possibilities – key elements and desired outcomes of learning.





Selgas Cano Architecture Office

Research suggests that working close to nature improves creativity and productivity. Architectural firm SelgasCano’s office in Madrid is the epitome of biophilic design, with their office being located in the middle of a forest!


The tubular building, which has one entire wall and a part of the ceiling made of glass, is half sunken into the forest floor, which means that one is at eye level with the forest floor when sitting at one’s desk.





Needless to say, there is no need for artificial lighting inside the office during the day and one only has to look out of the window or up at the ceiling for inspiration and to enjoy the many soothing and motivational benefits of being ensconced in nature, such as falling leaves, wildlife on the move or the changing daily and seasonal forest landscape.





Workbench Projects

Right here, in the hometown of Zeitgeist, Bangalore – India, is a workspace that really makes you want to jump in and tinker with something the minute you enter!





Workbench Projects, located under the Ulsoor Metro is a place for inventors and learners to prototype and test their ideas. This makerspace is split into several sections so there are areas for discussion, laser printing, designing, woodwork and electronic projects – all with a very ‘workshop’ vibe to it, motivating you as you rub shoulders with others working on something that just may be the next big thing.





These examples bring out what we spoke about in our earlier article, How To Design An Office That Stimulates Creativity, and clearly highlight how an office environment can go a long way in not only encouraging innovative thinking, but also other important elements, such as boosting employee morale, subtly nudging one towards a change in corporate culture, and gently breaking down the barriers that prevent networking and exchange of ideas.



Need some ideas on how to make your office space one that induces creativity for your particular line of work? Zeitgeist can help – reach out to us today!



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Space Design

When it comes to the working world, should spaces that encourage creativity only be reserved for the offices of designers, inventors and other disciplines of the ‘creative’ kind?


Zeitgeist thinks not.


There is enough research to suggest that the firms that will survive in a rapidly changing and unpredictable future will be the ones that consistently innovate. Accordingly to Gensler:


“The drive to innovate stems from the continued effects of globalization, increased competition, and the steady shift toward a knowledge economy.”


People make a company, (yes, even those that will be AI-ridden in the future) and so it would follow that the ability of people to be creative, motivated and innovative is the need of the hour in any organisation.


But could the design of a workspace help promote creativity and innovation? Could your office space help make elastic thinkers of its inhabitants?


Zeitgeist thinks so.


Today we’ll explore some of the design elements that both startups and well established businesses can integrate into their offices to encourage and develop innovative thinkers.


Beyond developing creativity, a space also has the ability to inculcate a sense of pride and belonging in the people that work there. Further, just as a person can influence a space, so can the design of a space have an impact on people and subtly nudge them towards a desired corporate culture. This is especially useful when making the shift from archaic and often deeply ingrained hierarchical ways of working to progressive ways of working that are collaborative and transparent.


LOCATION

If you are looking for an office space or moving an existing business to a new space, seize the opportunity to nurture creativity from the get-go by opting for the best location and office structure you can afford.




According to THNK, locations that lend themselves to creativity include those that allow for “openness, serendipity and outside inspiration.” This could be an office with floor to ceiling glass, perhaps located at the center of a pulsating area that buzzes with activity, (much like THNK’s own office in Amsterdam that is surrounded by other creative companies, a public park, jazz bars and cinemas with lots of cultural events) one that lets in plenty of natural sunlight and/or one that has an inspiring view.


Not all of us however have the luxury of being able to locate our offices in such idyllic settings, but there are several things that can be done within an existing office space to nurture innovation too.


OFFICE DESIGN

An open design – one that doesn’t make a person feel that he must remain confined to a particular area – is said to be the best for fostering creativity. Creativity and innovation stem from people interacting freely with each other – exchanging thoughts, sharing opinions and working together to develop ideas.




You can’t say to someone, ‘I want you to think differently, build differently, behave differently’ – and then say, ‘Go back to your desk.’ It absolutely doesn’t square with the idea that we want you to create growth. As founders and as leaders, we need to break people’s environments to truly change the way people think and create.

– David Kidder, Co-Founder – Bionic Solution

The process of innovating is made up of several phases – some that require messy, collaborative work, some that call for quiet contemplative reflection and others that call for quickly experimenting with numerous ideas to bring them to fruition for testing. So the workspace must also include private spaces for the times when deep concentration is required. The best way to achieve this is to develop a flexible workspace.


What comprises a flexible workplace? Think movable partitions and whiteboards, multi-use furniture, a floor you can mark, a wall you can illustrate and doodle on, a standing work table to induce the feeling of agility, little niches of solitude – the possibilities are endless!


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Duraflor has 4 excellent guidelines to keep in mind when designing your innovative work space. Does your workplace have all four?


AN ATMOSPHERE OF AGILITY

To further cultivate an atmosphere of agility, introduce elements that aid in quickly making an idea understandable. Innovation is born from the freedom to quickly prototype or express an idea from what’s at hand. So make sure that things like markers, PostIt notes, cardboard boxes, pins, clips, strings, chalk, glue, tape, Lego pieces….you get the idea – basically, anything that would help you to visualise or make a simple model of what you have in mind – are always close at hand.




WHAT LIES BENEATH

But the MOST important thing to induce innovation, (which is also the thing that the leaders of well established companies sometimes have a hard time wrapping their heads around) is to build a culture of creativity. This calls for a change in the mind set first of all of top management. Red tape and bureaucracy do not have a place in innovative organisations; neither does working in silos; neither does a fear of failure.




This kind of thinking can be tough for older companies to imbibe, entrenched as they sometimes are in practices that follow strict hierarchy. Here’s where designing the right kind of environment can gently nudge people into thinking and ultimately behaving differently.


Are you interested in developing a workspace to steer your company towards a future where it will be relevant, valuable and thriving with people raring to come up with the next big idea?


Zeitgeist’s venture design services can help you get there – reach out to us today to be ready for tomorrow!


Next week we’ll explore some of our favourite creative office spaces from around the world. Make sure you tune in!


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