Assumption 4, Part II: Hubs & nodes and the links between them
“The genius of Harold Morowitz is that he has pulled a dynamic group of interdisciplinary people together.”“People are nice here. They are willing to share ideas, not compete with each other.”
“We are a communal group – we are a collection of people who want to work together.”
“I am concerned that there is no space devoted to the interactions (gathering spaces) needed to do science in the new addition. Adequate space for people to gather is as critical as space for people to think, and space for lab benches.”
I left off in Assumption 4 by saying, “Collaboration builds bridges between the interdisciplinary types of research taking place at Krasnow. The architecture should promote community, versus isolation, in order to fully capitalize on the diverse knowledge of its inhabitants.”
An organization’s organization can have a physical complement where the architecture becomes an articulation of the "organizational flow chart”. Communal spaces in the form of hubs & nodes and the links between them can provide opportunities for spontaneous interaction – and the collaboration which so characterizes the Krasnow Institute - to occur.
In your words ….
You have identified hubs & nodes that “work” in promoting collaboration:
The downstairs lunch room:
- The downstairs lunch room is fabulous: It is an accessible, open space, with a big round (non-hierarchical) table, windows, white boards and a coffee station which together make collaboration happen. It also provides an opportunity to do science with visitors.
- The “Lunch Room” serves us not only as a lunch room, but also as a place to hold group meetings, conferences and informal gatherings.
You have identified hubs & nodes that do “not work”, acting as obstacles to collaboration:
The Kitchen:
- the kitchen is way too small - This is the smallest lunch room of anywhere I have worked.
- the large vending machine took out space that allowed multiple people to “hang out”.
- The kitchen is not effective: taking lunch requires going elsewhere and wastes at least an hour.
- Since we are not allowed to eat in the lab – where do I go?
- If there is no where to eat lunch, people will tend to keep to themselves (by eating alone in their office).
- Maintaining a single watering hole would be nice so we don’t fragment the staff.
Labs:
- The worst thing you can do to a PI is remove them from the lab. They need to have a direct unimpeded path, yet separation, with the data collection and data analysis that is being conducted.
Krasnow’s current linear structure marked by long, horizontal hallways and cellular, segmented offices and labs does not facilitate collaboration and teamwork. This is especially true for the “upstairs culture” which is shaped by its long corridor versus the more organic “hub” created by the lunchroom downstairs; says one upstairs resident: “my daily rountine is to enter the building, check my mail, and go to my office for the day”. In general, Krasnow lacks “lingering spaces”, places to pause – to read someone’s poster hanging on the wall, or to chat with a colleague in the hallway. Another means of increasing the odds of people collaborating is to increase the chances that their paths will intersect; that is, to optimize the number of physical and visual paths and connections between nodes & hubs.
With respect to the new addition, it is important to promote the existing collaborative spirit so that a fractured culture between new and old does not result. The addition, in turn, needs to physically promote collaboration within itself and with dialogue back to the existing facility.
posted by Meredith Banasiak, ANFA @ 4:40 PM
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