Therefore, when we think about places that inspire creativity, we shouldn’t be thinking about stationary design, but rather dynamic. It’s about the temporal experience of moving from different kinds of spaces, being drawn to external stimuli, but also having the time to let our minds wander. The cognitive journey that we require is built of a number of different types of spatial experiences. It’s possible to think of it as a curated experience in the same way that film weaves a narrative to elicit an emotional state.
Organisations will increasingly need to support their workforce with their efforts to innovate. Leaders such as Google and Apple are building brands that incorporate within them the type of working conditions their employees receive, partly because of the growing understanding that our surroundings have a huge role to play in our productivity.
A science-informed approach to architecture, however, is pointing at a stark difference between current architectural solutions – for example, Apple’s Spaceship campus – and the complex play of conditions that are more likely to support human creativity.
The architecture profession is yet to form an evidence-based approach to creating future-proofed workplaces that will stay relevant well into the fourth industrial revolution. Yet, if we pay attention to knowledge coming in from psychology and neuroscience and use it to inform how we design, we’d be on the right path.
Itai Palti is a director at Hume and The Centre for Conscious Design.
Read more about the workplace in our Far Futures scenario on LS:N Global.
