The Stanford d.school, which opens officially on May 7, is a space whose design has been refined over the course of six years to maximize the innovation process. Every wall, every nook, every connecting gizmo, every table, every storage cabinet, has been created with a grand, collaborative vision in mind.
Nice for them. But what about the rest of us, out here in standard-issue cubicle land? Are we all destined for subprime collaborative work lives because our office spaces and furniture are so numbingly left brain?
Not so, says George Kembel, the executive director of the school. Even if your company doesn't have a few million to throw at making your space more innovation-friendly, there are things you can do to optimize what you've got. The d.school team sat down and brainstormed 11 great ways to transform your digs into a little hive of bubbling creativity--or at least a place...
Nice for them. But what about the rest of us, out here in standard-issue cubicle land? Are we all destined for subprime collaborative work lives because our office spaces and furniture are so numbingly left brain?
Not so, says George Kembel, the executive director of the school. Even if your company doesn't have a few million to throw at making your space more innovation-friendly, there are things you can do to optimize what you've got. The d.school team sat down and brainstormed 11 great ways to transform your digs into a little hive of bubbling creativity--or at least a place...
- 5/6/2010
- by Linda Tischler
- Fast Company
The new home of Stanford University's d.school puts the institute's philosophy of creativity and collaboration into smart glass, steel, and concrete.
The glassy garage-door-style entrance telegraphs openness. It also alludes to the famous Silicon Valley garages where powerhouses such as Hp and Apple began. "The competitive advantage that a place like Silicon Valley has is in creating the next thing," says James Plummer, dean of Stanford's engineering school. "The d.school is a place where we can try and create graduates who will be the innovators."
In the beginning, there was just one red wall. That splash of rogue color, at Stanford's engineering school in 2003, marked the first spark of what would morph into the $35 million Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. If the creative process at the d.school -- as it's known -- exhorts students to gather data, prototype, identify what works, and start all over again to get to the best idea,...
The glassy garage-door-style entrance telegraphs openness. It also alludes to the famous Silicon Valley garages where powerhouses such as Hp and Apple began. "The competitive advantage that a place like Silicon Valley has is in creating the next thing," says James Plummer, dean of Stanford's engineering school. "The d.school is a place where we can try and create graduates who will be the innovators."
In the beginning, there was just one red wall. That splash of rogue color, at Stanford's engineering school in 2003, marked the first spark of what would morph into the $35 million Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. If the creative process at the d.school -- as it's known -- exhorts students to gather data, prototype, identify what works, and start all over again to get to the best idea,...
- 5/5/2010
- by Linda Tischler
- Fast Company
Design students, who venerate the perfect objects created by their professional idols, forget that innovation is a messy, imperfect process, plagued with fits, starts, and failures.
A set of storage towers, custom-created for the new Stanford d.school, is designed to show off work in progress, and to invite passing observers to chime in with ways to make it better.
The towers, with feature open-sided shelves on wheels, can be lined up in the main studio area, to encourage viewing. "You can walk along and see what somebody else is up to, and build on the ideas of others," says Scott Doorley, co-director of the d.school's Environments' Collective. "It's like a gallery-meets-workshop mash-up."
Read more about Stanford's new d.school building...
A set of storage towers, custom-created for the new Stanford d.school, is designed to show off work in progress, and to invite passing observers to chime in with ways to make it better.
The towers, with feature open-sided shelves on wheels, can be lined up in the main studio area, to encourage viewing. "You can walk along and see what somebody else is up to, and build on the ideas of others," says Scott Doorley, co-director of the d.school's Environments' Collective. "It's like a gallery-meets-workshop mash-up."
Read more about Stanford's new d.school building...
- 5/3/2010
- by Linda Tischler
- Fast Company
Can classroom design influence the quality of learning? Anybody who's sat in the back row of a big lecture hall with empty seats up front can tell you it's a perfect setup for disengagement--or for updating your Facebook page.
It's a problem central to space design at the new Stanford d.school building, and one that planners solved with a massively reconfigurable wall system that lets instructors create the perfectly sized space for each class.
The school's second floor is, essentially, one large room, framed by a truss system that lets planners design a series of sliders, attached with a gizmo they call a "taco" to a beam-mounted C-channel. That allows teams to create instant studios, of the exact dimensions appropriate to the day's activities. Need a cozy nook? Done! A wide-open expanse of space? Not a problem.
Additional support is provided by spring-loaded posts, which let classes put wall studs wherever they want.
It's a problem central to space design at the new Stanford d.school building, and one that planners solved with a massively reconfigurable wall system that lets instructors create the perfectly sized space for each class.
The school's second floor is, essentially, one large room, framed by a truss system that lets planners design a series of sliders, attached with a gizmo they call a "taco" to a beam-mounted C-channel. That allows teams to create instant studios, of the exact dimensions appropriate to the day's activities. Need a cozy nook? Done! A wide-open expanse of space? Not a problem.
Additional support is provided by spring-loaded posts, which let classes put wall studs wherever they want.
- 4/28/2010
- by Linda Tischler
- Fast Company
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