We are often told that one of the main objectives of workplace design these days is to help people become more creative. Now, there are all sorts of complications bound up in this, not least the assumption that you can help or even will people to become more creative, especially in an environment that still wants, in some way at least, to supervise what they do and when and where they do it. A working environment designed for creativity only works in the context of a culture that facilitates it. And here’s where the problem lies. Some traditional and proven avenues to creativity should remain closed to workplace occupiers and designers – not least misery and drugs – so that leaves them with a bit of a challenge. As with the question of productivity, the whole issue is complicated by the prevalence of assumptions and myths and an inability to distinguish between correlation and causation. One thing we know for sure is that merely aping the specific features of an office inhabited by successful, creative firms won’t make the success and creativity rub off. The links between workplace design and creativity are not as simple as that.
Riffing on the issue of workplace design and creativity