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15.07.08

Visiting Google Zürich

Last week I spent a highly interesting day at the Google Labs in Zürich. The architect and designer responsible for the recently opened Google complex, Stefan Camenzind, gave us a detailed insight in the design of the offices and spaces.

What really fascinated me was not so much the concrete manifestations of the objects (informal meeting rooms, open offices, relaxation areas etc), but rather how it come to these realisations. The guiding vision or values that had to be translated into tangible outcomes. This thinking has many overlaps with our developed framework of emergent innovation, especially with the concept of enabling spaces, what was also the reason for the visit. Together with Markus Peschl, I am currently working on a framework that can structure the elements and approaches of designing such enabling spaces (in the context of innovation, or more generally, in the creation of new knowledge). The following dimensions will be translated into concrete guidlines for the creation of enabling spaces:

• physical/architecture
• technological
• cognitive
• neuronale
• emotional
• intellectual
• social
• cultural
• inter-cultural

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