The Creative Environment - Community Creative School

On July 19th I went again (see also this post) to the Bruno Works to attend another "creative lunch" held by the Community Creative School.

The lecture was about "How to create a Creative Environment" and the presenter was Dutch MacDonald, from MAYA design. 

It was a great lesson on how to empower a space, and Dutch presented the Kiva® MAYA design invented, to let the ideas flowing in a more efficient way. I have rarely seen something that well thought and designed.

Dutch first introduced MAYA design and their approach to the creative process. Their mission is <<taming complexity, with interdisciplinary design and an architectural approach>>.

Given the complexity of the world around us, also in terms of data collection and amount of information available, MAYA tries to develop projects able to provide solutions that connect people, places and technologies.

They also aim to create the best possible environment for people, putting them in the right conditions to work, share and develop their own ideas.

MAYA design particularly cares of transmitting a culture of creativity, culture that is compatible with the most advanced technologies on the market. 

The continuous development of technologies, with the consequent tendency in having more and more staff mono-specialized on single aspect, reveals that we have to improve a cross-disciplines approach. Thus, people need to be put in condition to share their knowledge and ideas, to confront them and to come up with new ones. 

Dutch pointed out that it is difficult to change people's mind/brain, in order to have them becoming more "efficiently creative". Yet, it is possible to work on the environment around them, in order to improve it and shape the space to be more creativity friendly. He quoted the Herb's Simon's Scissors, which is a strong concept to talk about the decision making process.

Kiva®, MAYA's meeting room, is the perfect example of this attempt to transmit culture and improve creativity and the sharing of ideas (also with the clients). 

This incredible space was born from the need to connect:

• people and teams (with different skills and different ideas)
• culture (how to stimulate minds and improve interaction?)
• physical space (able to transmit and share this culture)

Dutch described it a <<machine for innovation>>. The main concept comes from the ancient underground Native American "community" rooms. In MAYA's Kiva® there are no tables, but just a circular space defined by 360° of white boards. On this boards, ideas are drawn or attached with post-its. This approach has a great impact on the traditional group dynamics of problem solving, improving it. Plus, there is a strong relation between the idea and the position in the space of Kiva®.

Drawing is a common language that is understood by everyone, in form of diagrams, images, sketches and so on. A circular space like this, allows also more groups to work at the same time on different projects, casually sharing information and solution to common projects, even if from different projects.

It is a highly stimulating space, both for principal, staff and clients. 

The rest of the MAYA building is very interesting as well, with spaces designed to provide either public or private and semi-private areas. Social spaces, like the cafe, are very important to reduce the stress level and improve creativity. You will also need spaces to physically "make" your ideas, bringing them from the paper to reality, even if just as models.

Dutch gave suggestions about how to create your own stimulating space - the creative environment - by presenting some examples of temporary workshops MAYA organized for universities or other institutions.

I am personally convinced that being creative, nowadays, is getting more and more vital, if we consider the energy issues, the global diminishing of raw materials and the universal increment of prices. 

"Being creative" is no more just for designers or architects: it is for everyone. Creativity can definitely improve everyone's life, and a creative environments can only positively impact on our lives.