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Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration

David Kelley,

Scott Doorley

Scott Witthoft

Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University

4.12 · Rating details · 374 Ratings · 37 Reviews

"If you are determined to encourage creativity and provide a collaborative environment that will bring out the best in people, you will want this book by your side at all times."
--Bill Moggridge, Director of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum "Make Space is an articulate account about the importance of space; how we think about it, build it and thrive i ...more

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Paperback, 272 pages

Published January 3rd 2012 by Wiley (first published December 30th 2011)

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Jun 13, 2014 Diana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, professional-development

This book, created by the Stanford d.school, is an amazing source of design inspiration. While it tends to be geared more towards open office spaces and college environments, there's plenty of ideas and resources for educators as well. Make Space tells the d.school's story - it's need for flexibility and economy when being shuffled all over campus, what worked and didn't work for their collaborative spaces, and how they finally figured out how to get it right.

Interspersed throughout the book are ...more

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Jun 25, 2016 Erwin rated it really liked it

Very inspiring book full of lessons from experimental/ iterative creative space design at d.school. Besides many insights, situations to design for and space studies there's build instructions for DIY furniture. I just wish the instructions where a bit more specific or detailed, because I feel like building better workspace(s) now.

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Jun 14, 2017 Duane rated it liked it

As someone that works in a collaborative workspace, this book was a real game-changer. A synergistic ecosystem pivot. A way to think that's different. I can't wait to apply my learnings. On a slightly less snarky note, there were lots of cool designs for using everyday materials for brilliant solutions in co-working spaces.

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Jul 28, 2017 Kathy Gorski rated it it was amazing

I recommend this often to anyone looking to develop a makerspace in their schools. GREAT ideas (many we have used easily and successfully). Unless you are tapped into a mega-donor, this book is essential for how to engage in making without the superfund to do it.

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Aug 23, 2017 Alejandro Perez rated it really liked it

Lots of great ideas, mostly for DIY's, but I was able to share a couple of great ones that got implemented in our workspace.

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Jun 14, 2017 Susan Cosden rated it it was amazing

Great book for thinking about designing learning/meeting/collaborating spaces and the materials in them.

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Dec 14, 2015 Dudee rated it it was amazing

Libraries and many corporations are transforming some of their traditional office or public space into this "collaborative" or "maker" space right now. If you are on one of the teams to evaluate/design/implement such a project, be sure you and your team has this book. There is something for everyone involved in creating and operating a collaborative space in this book.

The authors are faculty members of the Design Institute of Stanford (d.school). This book is like a combination of manual and "le Libraries and many corporations are transforming some of their traditional office or public space into this "collaborative" or "maker" space right now. If you are on one of the teams to evaluate/design/implement such a project, be sure you and your team has this book. There is something for everyone involved in creating and operating a collaborative space in this book.

The authors are faculty members of the Design Institute of Stanford (d.school). This book is like a combination of manual and "lessons-learned" from its own experiences of moving several times within a handful of years. The design of this book is also unique. Like a reference book, it is not designed to read from beginning to end; on the other hand, it is not like an encyclopedia where entries are arranged from A-Z. There are five types of entries: tools, situations, design templates, space studies, and insights. Each entry occupies either one or two pages, related entries are listed at the end. So an entry on space studies can have a couple "links" to insights; and situations have links to tools or design templates.

Tools and design templates are very useful to the designers and people who will actually build components of the space. The insights, space studies and situations can give the non-architect/non-designers on the team background concepts and ideas. An example is the space study on TED conference: more than the 18-munite presentation style, the TED conference calls for a total collaborative environment. So the design idea is "a network of places intended to connect people based on different behaviors." So there are large auditorium as well as small lounges, some for people who would take notes or blog with keyboards, while other spaces encourage people to talk while listen. The 45-minue brakes are also designed for audience to exchange comments, thus create a sense of belonging rather than shorter breaks making attendees hurrying to the next session. I have not been to any big conferences during the last couple of years, I wonder how much of these space ideas have been adopted by other conferences.

The pathos of this book, and for designing collaborative space are "collaborate across boundaries", "show, don't tell", and "bias toward action." But the authors also emphasize "balance", any of the insights or principles are "robust enough to be defended, but not so precious that cannot be re-evaluated." For example, their idea of bias toward action does not meat to not-thinking; what is important is reflections after action, evaluate and gain deeper understanding of the problem and solution.

My library has gone through a major remodeling five years ago (2010), and a minor upgrade last year (2015). Reading this book, I find myself thinking, "Oh, this is what we did right," or "Wish I had known this sooner." Highly recommend this book. ...more

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Sep 22, 2016 Jonathan Cassie rated it it was amazing

An inspiring and well organized assortment of ideas to pump up existing design learning spaces or make new ones. I will be referring back to this book for a long time.

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Jan 31, 2012 Lindsey rated it really liked it

Shelves: vine-books

At first, I was a bit confused with the layout of this book. The book definitely lacks flow and just jumps from one idea to the next. Picking up the book to read from cover to cover, you end up scratching your head saying, "What am I doing here. What am I even reading here."

Then, you decide to pick up the book for ideas, inspiration, starting points. And suddenly, it makes sense. You suddenly see the ideas flowing from the pages and you see what is being done and immediately start thinking, "Now ...more

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Jan 30, 2016 Allison rated it really liked it

Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft are engineers and professors at Stanford University who wrote this book. They have been at the forefront of the makerspace movement since 2007 and developed an insightful, research-based book about how to incorporate makerspace, hack space, fabLabs into classrooms, businesses, and workspaces. The wisdom they have to impart is valuable for everyone, especially those who want to make the most functional, innovative space available to collaboration. They share tons ...more

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Feb 07, 2017 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites

I wasn't too impressed with this book when I first thumbed through it. It was when I had time to slowly read and digest small bits at a time, reflecting and thinking it through that I realized what a gem this book is. It changed the way I look at space and made me more aware of its effect on people. A treasure to have when designing learning / collaborative spaces.

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Nov 18, 2016 Pete Sena rated it really liked it

This quote from the Book says it all "space is the body language of an organization". As an entrepreneur of a growing business going from my dorm room to a offices in multiple the idea and understanding of how space physically can shape culture in your organization is absolutely critical. I highly recommend all my fellow entrepreneurs read this book and see how they can incorporate making and hacking into not just their product design and digital work but also their physical space. Def worth buy ...more

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Jan 22, 2014 Manuel Frias rated it it was ok

Shelves: design

This book is plenty with ideas to reorganize your work place. Some are cool. Some seem useful for making a more creative use of the space. But, maybe I am too conservative or I think my organization is. The fact is that I find most of them very difficult to carry them out.

I think this book might be useful to new start-ups or organizations with a highly creative people. Most of the ideas would find a hard resistance to apply in rather bureaucratic organizations like mine, I'm afraid.

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Dec 05, 2013 Pat East rated it really liked it

This book is a fairly great read if you want to have ideas on how to shake up your work space productively. While many of these changes do not require much in the way of resources, I would recommend only reading this book when you have a significant amount of space that can be experimented with immediately. I look forward to employing what I learned in this book at home and in the community.

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Jan 20, 2012 Nathanael Coyne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: work-related, favourite, wood-woodworking

An excellent resource for thinking about, planning and setting up spaces that encourage participation, collaboration and creativity. Everything from design and creative process "templates" through to DIY woodwork construction of tables and office furniture for mobile set-up/take-down areas, writing, sticking up. Lots of illustrations, photos and stories that will inspire!

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Apr 30, 2013 Etienne Beaulieu rated it it was amazing

Excellent livre qui présente des idées concrètes pour aménager des espaces de travail collaboratif. On y retrouve même des plans pour construire certains éléments de mobiliers à peu de frais. À découvrir!

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Jul 06, 2014 Jamie rated it really liked it

Shelves: professional-development, library-spaces

This book gives great ideas for creating collaborative work spaces. Some can be applied to school spaces, but more of the ideas are applicable to adult work spaces. The book does inspire the readers, however, to think "outside the box" about they can make their own space more collaborative.

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Sep 26, 2014 Melanie rated it it was ok

This book describes the physical space needed for a collaborative environment (and includes instructions on how to actually build white boards and cubes to sit on). It doesn't get into the social environment that makes these function well. It looks trendy and I suspect it won't age all that well.

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Jan 18, 2013 Rebecca rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013, creativity, education, productivity

This is a great recipe book for those looking to create or improve makerspaces, studios, collborative spaces, or anywhere else creativity and project development needs to happen. I'm already thinking of ways to apply this to my own small space.

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Feb 15, 2014 Alan Caramatti rated it liked it

Shelves: creativity, psychology, did-not-finish, business, self-help

A helpful book. It's definitely a "how-to" book -- one that I want to pick back up when I'm ready to design & build "creating spaces."

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Aug 01, 2014 Regina Hoskins rated it liked it

This has some good ideas on how to make simple and affordable changes to a space.

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Jul 09, 2014 Christy rated it really liked it

If you are in need of designing a workspace or new building, I would recommend this book. If you have the budget for awesome furniture, event better!

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Sep 23, 2013 Debbie Carey rated it it was amazing

Absolutely fantastic! I am looking forward to attending an Innovative Conference and hearing speakers from the dschool. Environments support communities and their ideas and thinking!

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Mar 29, 2013 Jonas Henrique rated it it was amazing

Shelves: design

Awesome book that made me think about how can I design and organize spaces to generate better ideas and experiences!

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Oct 28, 2016 Charles rated it it was amazing

Excellent tips about creating a creative collaborative space. When I first came across it, I had no idea how many times I'd reference it for work and at home.

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Jan 02, 2014 Brandon rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2013

Interesting ideas for me. I sought this title out as I was going through a small renovation project in the house to create a make space for my family.

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Jan 08, 2017 Sanjay Purohit rated it it was amazing

Awesome! This is a workbook. Become aware of your surroundings. Put the chapters to practice. This book become an invaluable resource. Transformation potential.

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