A space can be defined as an architectural building, outdoor structures, and natural environments. These spaces have composed our lives for centuries, transforming and developing to meet our needs, they give meaning to the human experience, a meaning that can only be defined by our interpretation of the environments we inhabit. By exploring the environment of creative workspaces, specifically, I hope to visualize and contextualize how and why our behaviors and emotions are shaped by the places we work in.

To understand the reasoning behind how we are related to our workplaces, we dive into behavioral design, experience design, and psychology which can present insights to how and why we operate the way that we do and the ways we can make informed decisions for the future. In work environments, there are inputs like layouts, noise, lighting, or temperature that affect outputs like individual efficiency, creativity, productivity, or collaboration. Those output behavioral and emotional responses are different for everyone. What one person finds as the ideal working situation may not be the same for others. Similarly, for creatives, understanding what fosters creativity vs hindering it can motivate design solutions to generate a variety of solutions.

Cultivating productive and flourishing workplaces is linked to how individuals perform on their own and within a group which is determined by physical, functional, and psychological factors of working environments. Within a layered and modular physical model, drawing on the physical space of the primary graphic design studio at SJSU, I hope to learn more about how the space affects the students focus, productivity, and creativity in class. The goal is to create an ideal environment for the creative individual within this proposed model while using research findings, user experience methods, and understanding of fundamental design principles.