How can we create environments that promote innovation? This question holds relevance across a range of industries, from business, science and technology to education, government and beyond. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for producing innovation, but understanding what innovation is and how it happens can help to inform the process of designing spaces that support it.
Innovation is a complex phenomenon that relies on a multitude of factors coming together in just the right way. But evidence suggests that play—engaging ourselves in an activity for the pure enjoyment of the process—is an important piece of the puzzle. A number of experts on the science of creativity and innovation, cited in this paper, believe that it is uniquely within a state of play that our minds are most receptive to discovery. Freedom from external pressures enables us to experiment and take risks, ultimately forming new connections between ideas. Play is also an effective social connector, helping to build trust and open up the channels of communication.
Some of the world’s most innovative companies have benefited from infusing play into their work. The workspaces at Google, for example, look more like playgrounds than traditional offices. What can we learn from successful companies who are using play to produce innovation? How can we bring play into the context of other disciplines, and what will be the result? Informed by research on the science of play, principles of environmental psychology, and pertinent case studies, this paper seeks to identify strategies for creating environments that support innovation through play.