The Space-Organisation Relationship

Redrawing the Map of Britain Based on Human Interaction

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:08:43 +0000

Redrawing the Map of Britain Based on Human Interaction:

Interesting read in the online journal PLOS ONE - researchers have mapped a large data set of phone calls within Great Britain to investigate whether regional boundaries are reflected in the everyday life of people.

Cultures of Nomadic Working

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:31:47 +0000

Cultures of Nomadic Working:

Great article in the NYT on the cultures of nomadic working - what happens as people leave their private individual study rooms at home and decide to take their working processes into the public domain in cafes.

What if Darwin had discovered Angry Birds…

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 22:48:23 +0000

What if Darwin had discovered Angry Birds…

Makes me smile every morning on my way to work in Shoreditch.

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:19:42 +0000

Makes me smile every morning on my way to work in Shoreditch.

This is a great series of maps of Europe and the world, seen...

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:30:03 +0100

This is a great series of maps of Europe and the world, seen from the perspective of one country and mapping the most common stereotypes. Hilarious!

I love data and visualisations, but I also love details and...

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:30:55 +0100

I love data and visualisations, but I also love details and in-depth analysis, and this seems to be a nice presentation of all of those in HBR.

Six Ways to Find Value in Twitter’s Noise (reblogged from datavis)

Real good fun and interesting data visualisation of the London...

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:05:00 +0100

Real good fun and interesting data visualisation of the London Underground network. Now you get an idea what they mean by the commonly heard announcement ‘we’re held here shortly to regulate gaps in the service’. My mind always turns ‘regulate’ into ‘create’ anyway…

And the winner is… Spacelab architects have won two awards...

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:17:22 +0100

And the winner is…

Spacelab architects have won two awards for their innovative workplace consultancy, developed in close collaboration with the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies at UCL.

The video was produced as part of the ceremony for the UCL Awards for Enterprise 2010, and actually also showcases office and working practices at Spacelab.

Sleep for Success: Creativity and the Neuroscience of Slumber

Mon, 17 May 2010 17:31:25 +0100

Sleep for Success: Creativity and the Neuroscience of Slumber:

Seems like all my sleepiness and the crazy amount of hours I would need on a regular basis at least are worth it. ;-)

azspot:

For years, scientists thought that the function of sleep was merely to rest the body and mind, but recent research suggests that sleep is essential for both learning and creativity. It’s no surprise that people who are well rested learn better and are more creative. What is new is the value of sleeping after learning something or during a break in trying to solve a problem. Studies have looked at the benefits of taking naps as well as sleeping through the night.

During sleep, rat’s brains (and yours) practice what they’re recently learned.
Researchers have discovered that your brain becomes very active when you sleep, and that during certain phases of sleep, your brain becomes even more active if you’ve just learned something new. In an early study that identified this process, rats were hooked up to measure the electrical activity of their brains while they learned a maze. Later, while the rats were sleeping, the researchers observed that their brains were emitting the same pattern of activity they had emitted during maze learning. Apparently, the rats’ brains were “re-running” the maze in their sleep and using this time to consolidate their memories of what they had learned. These rats performed better on the maze the next day than rats that were prevented from re-running the maze during sleep.

This same phenomenon has been observed in human learning. In other words, if you learn something and then sleep on it, what you’ve learned becomes clearer just as a function of sleeping. But what’s even more interesting is that sleeping on a problem helps people find better solutions. In a study titled “Sleep Inspires Insight,” participants were given puzzles that involved finding the final number to complete a series of digits. The way they were trained to solve the puzzle was to compare every two-digit pair in the series. What they were not told was that there was a shortcut that allowed people to identify the solution after only two steps. Participants performed three trials of the puzzle and then were given an eight-hour break before returning for ten more trials. Some of them slept during the break and some did not. The people who slept between the two sessions were twice as likely as the others to discover the easier way to solve the problem. According to the researchers, sleeping on a problem apparently allows for a restructuring of the brain connections, “setting the stage for the emergence of insight.”

Don't Shave That Yak!

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:31:48 +0100

Don't Shave That Yak!:

Very funny blog on the things we do when we need to do something, but find there’s sooooo many other things that need doing before - and that is Yak Shaving.

How life sometimes seems all odd and boring, where it...

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:43:33 +0100

How life sometimes seems all odd and boring, where it isn’t: xkcd: Desert Island

Flight patterns over Europe today - not much going on in the...

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:59:09 +0100

Flight patterns over Europe today - not much going on in the North due to volcanic ashes in the air. I still can’t get over the fact that it was perfectly sunny all day today in London. Seems unreal that there should be a cloud full of particles higher up causing so much disruption.

How science became cool [The Guardian]

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:54:30 +0100

How science became cool [The Guardian] :

Great article about the new interest in science and evidence-based practices.

And it is funny, too! I love the bit about the new twitter account ‘HiggsMatters’ being opened shortly after the big particle collision at the LHC in Geneva - first message ‘Hello World’.

Does this mean I am a geek, too? :-)

Gephi is a newly released network visualisation software,...

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:49:49 +0100

Gephi is a newly released network visualisation software, completely free and open-source. People have called it the ‘Photoshop’ for graph visualisation. Looks great - am really keen on trying it.

Spaces, Places and Settings At the Enable Conference 2010 in...

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:00:55 +0100

01 Floor plan of the Enable Conference

02 Analysis of Spatial Potential

03 Analysis of Activities

Spaces, Places and Settings

At the Enable Conference 2010 in Vienna participants mapped the locations where they had an interesting discussion, learnt something, had a new idea or had the chance to think about something.

This was compared with an analysis of the spatial potential of the conference venue using Space Syntax analysis methods. Results are interesting - thinking happened in segregated spaces, learning and discussing as social activities took place in the more integrated areas - or on the ladies toilet… :-). And new ideas were born mostly in formal settings, similarly to learning.

It was a fun experiment and I’d love to repeat this in other settings. Anyone interested?

Enjoying the slowness of life on a day off - taking the bus into...

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:32:13 +0100

Enjoying the slowness of life on a day off - taking the bus into town even though it takes ages. Great opportunities for people watching as well - one of my favourite pastimes.

Posters created by tracking insect movement (Reblogged...

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:07:00 +0000

Posters created by tracking insect movement (Reblogged from: ideasareawesome and Dezeen » Blog Archive » Debug by Edhv)

Places for creative work - where and how did famous people...

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:41:05 +0000

Places for creative work - where and how did famous people establish their working practices? The sheer diversity of this is amazing. It seems that creativity can be found anywhere, or were these guys just eccentrics? (Reblogged from vizualize and lauterthanbombs)

Transformation of a 13th-century Dominican church into a Dutch bookstore

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:51:07 +0000

Transformation of a 13th-century Dominican church into a Dutch bookstore:

I love bookshops and this looks great - would love to spend the odd hour there browsing shelves.

I love this logo for the upcoming conference of the British...

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:53:33 +0000

I love this logo for the upcoming conference of the British Council for Offices. Great images of most of London’s landmarks…