The Culture of an Interdisciplinary, Architectural-Based Design Tank
What are the principles to maintain a firm’s creativity and energy? What kind of environment and structure is needed? Here are some key points of two different innovative firms:
IDEO (interdisciplinary design, USA)
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Brain Store (idea factory, Switzerland)
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- Idea-friendly
- No Boss’ boss
- Work with “friends”
- Characterize each member for further placement
- Brainstorming as routine
Source: Janet Wiscombe, “The Innovation Factory”, Workforce Management Online, Jan. 2007
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- Idea Machine - produce ideas industrially
- Insiders + Outsiders
- Idea management > generating
- Idea-friendly
Source: Nadja Schnetzler, “The Idea Machine”, 2005
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I think the ways approaching design are fundamentally the same, and being interdisciplinary is not a trend, it is the nature (and a mission) of design profession. I would like to compare my thoughts on an architectural firm to the two above and try to conclude the essences of design firms that should be applied as well to architectural profession. I think what a typical architecture firm lacks of is an inspiring working environment, a creative and flexible labor structure, and an efficient way of producing ideas. And these elements are even crucial to a detached design group.
Structure
The design tank should consist of several sectors: Architecture/Planning, Interior Design, Product Design, Commercial Design, and Market teams. Each member in the firm has the chance to be the Project Manager according to his/her capability or profession and the project type. Also, outsiders- including interns, partners, and clients, will be part of the team during the stages of concept development. The firm is adaptive to continuous changing of labor flows and its recruitment will refresh and energize the firm itself constantly.
Environment
The office environment is crucial to the firm. As same as its labor structure, its space remains open and flexible for its continuous changes of arrangement. Also, recreational elements and plants are considered as important as any other furniture. All furniture are mobile, and should be able to be moved easily since an individual may be part of several projects at a time, he/she would constantly move the working place between groups. There would be no fixed partition but flexible ones that could be easily and interestingly set up for meetings or other activities.
