Terry Beaubois @F4H2014

In this presentation, given at the Franchise for Humanity Stanford University, California on Feb 20th 2014, Terry Beaubois shares the components of 'gracious spaces' - places designed specifically to allow a feeling of safety, collaboration, and openness.

 
  
 Terry practiced architecture in Silicon Valley for 30 yrs before being invited to found a Creative Research Lab in the college of arts and architecture at Montana State University.

Finding that many of his colleagues had never actually worked together, nor even set foot in the adjacent buildings on campus over decades, Terry became acutely aware that silos happen -- in education, in government, and in business. 

Creating a space for people to collaborate is about creating a space both physically and mentally where people feel safe, where they can share ideas, and where people feel comfortable talking to each other.

The goal became to create a gracious space both architecturally and in implementation. You can build something that looks great, but that doesn't actually work well. As an example, things like sound are devalued because you can't see it.

  
During this presentation at the Franchise for Humanity, Stanford University, California on Feb 20, 2014, Terry Beaubois talks about the Creative Research Lab at Montana State University.

He reminds the audience that finding and acknowledging the many ideas and projects that have been done before is an integral aspect of group work, along with a sea-change to collaboration, which is native to some industries (the movie and film world, for instance) and foreign to others (the do-it-solo architectural world).

We have to be people that are willing to share credit, and to acknowledge the team.
 
The Back Story: The Creative Research Lab - Lessons Learned

~Creating a Gracious Space
~Collaboration
~Multidisciplinary
~Quality
~Teams Doing Projects - ecoSMART House
 
Have to have Government, Business and Education all together in creating these shared ventures and spaces. 

When designing homes and businesses, he noticed that people focus on the quality of life aspects - not the numerical metrics. It's the sustainability of humans, not the components of the house, that is key.

An architectural friend in Finland shared that they now call it 'Design for All,' not 'Disability Design,' which brought it home that we should design for everyone, all the time, from the beginning.

The daughter of the family the ecoSMART house in Montana was built for was hired for two weeks to do design work in the lab; as a wheel-chair user, she found things on the internet they had never even thought of.

It's no longer about big data, it's about the flow of information - including by smart buildings, on an 'opt-in' basis. One place to look for new ideas & information in this area: 'Age of Context: Mobile, Sensors, Data and the Future of Privacy ' by Robert Scoble.

 
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Terry Beaubois
Terry Beaubois @F4H2014
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F4H 2014 – Presentations
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