I've just spent two stimulating days with a small group of architects, university professors, and creativity researchers, at a beautiful old lakeside estate called Marigold Lodge, in Western Michigan. Our goal: To collect everything we know about how to design spaces that maximize learning and foster creativity. With funding from the Sloan Foundation and from the legendary furniture company Herman Miller (which now owns Marigold Lodge), our task is to write a report that will advise university administrations and architecture firms, to guide how new university buildings are designed.
Keith Sawyer's latest post provides a terrific introduction to a new series coming on the design of learning that I'll be doing on Censemaking in the coming weeks. The importance of the environments -- social and physical -- that support creativity cannot be understated and Dr Sawyer's reflections, if taken seriously by educators and academic administrators, could transform the demands that educational institutions pose on their builders, their teachers and their students (who, by the way, are already asking for better spaces to learn). If you're not familiar with Keith Sawyer's work, look him up and consider reading some of his many outstanding texts on creativity and innovation; they are top-notch.
Follow @stephjoke on Twitter