As I already mentioned in the last newsletter, I want to continue to tackle the topics of meetings and facilitation in a broader sense. One topic that is highly important to make collaboration and innovation work is spatial environment. Let’s dive into it!

"The Growroom" is an urban farm pavilion and an example of food-producing architecture that supports an everyday sense of well-being in cities and in workspaces. It does so by creating a small oasis or pause-architecture that enables people to connect with nature and their senses.

Apart from being a nice central point for shared care and communication in the office, the green pavilion is also a great way to express a company’s connection to health and well-being. Check out the Growroom within the office environment of the healthcare start-up Joany, designed by Kelly Robinson.
 

The Growroom was developed as a project within Space10. If you wish to build your own for your workspace, you can access the open source design, download the cutting files for free and build it following the instructions here.

WORKSPACES AS A MIRROR OF YOUR COMPANY CULTURE

The design and furniture company Herman Miller (very well known for the Eames Chair by Ray and Charles Eames), have shared some results from their research on innovative companies at the leading edge of workplace strategy. One major insight they found: companies that think of their workplace as a tool for achieving business outcomes are more conscious about the kind of behaviors they want to encourage and discourage in the workplace. 

Asking the question of what behaviors one wishes to encourage or discourage inevitably uncovers true company culture, that is to say, sheds light on whether a company is focused on hierarchy, control, and line-of-sight management or whether a company is transparent, self-reliant, collaborative etc. These points create major challenges for anyone in the business of creating workspaces and furniture that invoke certain behaviors and that strengthen a company’s culture:

Read the complete article here. 

Dark Horse is an innovation consultancy based in Berlin that supports its clients in creating product and service innovations. Dark Horse knows that space is key when it comes to creativity and innovation. It’s no surprise then that they’ve written about the topic in their recently published "New Workspace Playbook". In the book, they share their knowledge on how to tackle the challenge of transforming or re-building collaborative and agile workspaces. 

You can get the book as well as additional material to help you get started here (in German). 

If you have any questions or suggestions for topics that should be covered please drop me an e-mail!

You know people who might be interested in this Newsletter? Feel free to forward this e-mail or share the sign up link. 

Thank you!
Yours, Claudia