Design Principles for Work and Learning Environments

Design principles

From this, we believe it is possible to derive some general principles for the design of workspaces that are conducive to creativity and innovation. These principles are as important for users of space—and those who commission such spaces—as they are for the designers of the spaces. We discuss six such principles in our book.

Principle 1: There are no guarantees. We stated this earlier, and it is worth repeating: no space design can ever guarantee that a single creative thought will be thought, or a single innovation will be created within it. The best one can do is to establish the conditions for creative thinking.

Principle 2: Comfort is key. Much more than through the ergonomic design of a chair, for instance, our human comfort is established by the degree to which we feel optimism, mindfulness, authenticity, belonging, meaning, and vitality. The spaces in which we work and learn should establish the mindset of comfort and wellbeing with how they look and how they function.

Principle 3: Space can unleash good behaviors. Communication cannot even begin unless we are aware of others with whom we might communicate, so design space that encourages awareness of everyone else who is also at the same company. Likewise, with collaboration: we need to be aware of our potential collaborators. And with that awareness, we then need the spaces to communicate and collaborate. Conversely, concentration requires its own spaces and the permission to set ourselves apart in those spaces when needed. And allow rejuvenation—whether of the individual, restful kind or the group, playful kind—to unfold within our work and learning environments, rather than requiring that people go somewhere else to rejuvenate.

Principle 4: Flexibility is a necessity. A very broad view of “flexibility” is best, one that encompasses as well the notion of “variability.” It is not only about ensuring that a given room can be reconfigured, which can be accomplished with furniture, rolling walls, and so on, but also about considering every room to have whatever purposes its users decide at a given moment.

Principle 5: Space connected with nature is best. Humans function best in-built environments that draw strongly from the natural world.

Principle 6: A space is only as good as those who lead in it.

Applying these six principles, as with setting aside specific space for creative thinking, offers no guarantee. The principles are, though, derived from the successful spaces we show as examples. They would thus be a very good starting point.