Creativity syntax: codifying physical space's impact on creativity in the workplace

Abstract

The impact of the physical environment on people's ability to be optimally creative at work is a research area which has only now, in the past decade, started to receive detailed attention. Although creativity in the workplace has been the subject of intensive research for over half a century researchers have stepped away from or minimized the effect that the physical environment may have on people's creativity and ability to innovate. Building on recent work done in the field, and on earlier theories of pattern language and shape grammar, this paper outlines work that moves towards a grammar of creative spaces identifying and codifying those elements of the physical environment which may optimize creativity in the workplace.