New in-house organizational spaces that support creativity and innovation: the co-working space

Office work has traditionally been associated with administrative and intellectual production. The demand for more timely information and a quest for ever greater productivity has led to the changes in the workspace through the centuries. Our workplaces have become more functional and productive, but also subsequently places of interaction and socialization, where the human dimension have emerged gradually. At a time when the mantra `innovate or die` and `find the next big thing` rings uncomfortably in company CEO`s ears, designers need to change the office layouts to help promote interactions and encourage serendipity amongst creative employees. This in turn needs different forms of organizational corporate culture that supports collaborative work. Companies on the creative edge need to establish rich and diverse in-house office environments that provide a level of comfort and a wide range of facilities where creative work can be done in a collaborative way through exercising considerable judgement and intelligence. This paper proposes that these offices should be more than just shared open-plan offices - they need to be spaces used by a diverse group of people (co-workers) for collaboration, community building and idea sharing. Originally, the term ‘co-working space’ refers to a new shared working environment for freelancers and other location-independent professionals who are tired of the isolation of their home offices and the distraction of their local coffee shops. However the paper proposes that the model used for co-working spaces can also be applied to company environments in order to boost creativity and innovation. To see whether this option is profitable for R&D activities, the co-working values (collaboration, community, sustainability, openness and accessibility) can be used as a guide for where to set up such spaces; how to operate on a daily basis; and how to stimulate employees’ creativity. In this paper the key values will be discussed from a practical perspective and used for the understanding of how these principles can be applied to R&D workspaces in companies to encourage creative behaviour and support innovative projects.