WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • “A delightful, compelling book that offers a dazzling array of practical, thoughtful exercises designed to spark creativity, help solve problems, foster connection, and make our lives better.”—Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author and host of the Happier podcast In an era of ambiguous, messy problems—as well as extraordinary opportunities for positive change—it’s vital to have both an inquisitive mind and the ability to act with intention. Creative Acts for Curious People is filled with ways to build those skills with resilience, care, and confidence. At Stanford University’s world-renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, aka “the d.school,” students and faculty, experts and seekers bring together diverse perspectives to tackle ambitious projects; this book contains the experiences designed to help them do it. A provocative and highly visual companion, it’s a definitive resource for people who aim to draw on their curiosity and creativity in the face of uncertainty. Teeming with ideas about discovery, learning, and leading the way through unknown creative territory, Creative Acts for Curious People includes memorable stories and more than eighty innovative exercises. Curated by executive director Sarah Stein Greenberg, after being honed in the classrooms of the d.school, these exercises originated in some of the world’s most inventive and unconventional minds, including those of d.school and IDEO founder David M. Kelley, ReadyMade magazine founder Grace Hawthorne, innovative choreographer Aleta Hayes, Google chief innovation evangelist Frederik G. Pferdt, and many more. To bring fresh approaches to any challenge–world changing or close to home–you can draw on exercises such as Expert Eyes to hone observation skills, How to Talk to Strangers to foster understanding, and Designing Tools for Teams to build creative leadership. The activities are at once lighthearted, surprising, tough, and impactful–and reveal how the hidden dynamics of design can drive more vibrant ways of making, feeling, exploring, experimenting, and collaborating at work and in life. This book will help you develop the behaviors and deepen the mindsets that can turn your curiosity into ideas, and your ideas into action.

Educators often overlook the positive impact of changing the environment of the school itself when considering how to improve the quality of education. First published in 1994, School Design shows how to create more effective schools through a design process that involves teachers, students, parents, administrators, and architects. It reveals how to create school environments that develop the whole child, instil enthusiasm for learning, and encourage positive social relationships. Readers discover how to integrate design research, design participation, and design development to optimize school settings. Using a number of case studies, detailed practical methods show how to: Link behavioural objectives to spatial needs Achieve spatial efficacy without compromising education Match children’s developmental needs to facility requirements Promote greater variety in physical facilities to accommodate various teaching and learning styles Gain more valuable feedback from teachers, parents, students, and local citizens on building performance. In response to tight school budgets, Henry Sanoff discusses how relatively minor design modifications can have a major positive effect on school performance. This path-breaking volume will provide architects, teachers, and school administrators with a wide array of insights into creating spaces that promote better learning.

The Language of School design is a seminal work because it defines a new graphic vocabulary that synthesizes learning research with best practice in school planning and design. But it is more than a book about ideas. It is also a practical tool and a must-have resource for all school stakeholders involved in planning, designing and constructing new and renovated schools and evaluating the educational adequacy of existing school facilities.

Design School: Layout is an instructive guide for students, recent graduates, and self-taught designers. It provides a comprehensive introduction to creating and changing layouts: a crucially important skill that underpins practically every aspect of graphic design. You'll get in-depth analysis of all the major areas of theory and practice used by experienced professional designers. Each section provides explanation and visual examples of grid systems and in-depth discussion of compositional principles and strategies. The text is interspersed with tests designed to help you retain key points you've covered in the preceding spreads, and includes illustrations sections with real world scenarios. This in-depth guide avoids the temptation to stray into other areas of design technique, preferring to cover the essential, detailed skills of the professional graphic designer to arm you with the knowledge needed for a successful start to your chosen career.

The time is ripe for interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches to school design. Whatever the current funding limitations, we still need to think about how we design, organise and use space in schools for learning and teaching. This edited book ensures that we don’t start from ground zero in terms of good design. Including chapters from researchers and practitioners in architecture and education, it assesses, describes and illustrates how education and environment can be mutually supportive. The centrality of participation and collaboration between architects, educators and school users holds these diverse contributions together. The book embodies the practice as well as the principle of interdisciplinary working. Organised in two parts, this volume considers how schools are designed and used with chapters looks at current and past school environments in the UK, US and Europe. It then questions how the learning environment can be improved through participatory design processes with contributors from design and education backgrounds offering both theoretical understanding and practical ideas. Written without subject-specific jargon or assumptions, it can be used by readers from either an architectural or educational background, bridging the on-going communication gap between education and design professionals. Design and education professionals alike will appreciate the: • practical information which shows how to change or improve a learning environment • focus on evidence-based research • case studies and chapter topics including schools from across the primary and secondary sectors.

What would a school look like if it was designed with mental health in mind? Too many public schools look and feel like prisons, designed out of fear of vandalism and truancy. But we know that nurturing environments are better for learning. Access to nature, big classroom windows, and open campuses consistently reduce stress, anxiety, disorderly conduct, and crime, and improve academic performance. Backed by decades of research, Schools That Heal showcases clear and compelling ways--from furniture to classroom improvements to whole campus renovations--to make supportive learning environments for our children and teenagers. With invaluable advice for school administrators, public health experts, teachers, and parents Schools That Heal is a call to action and a practical resource to create nurturing and inspiring schools for all children.

Exploring debates and issues from a number of different professional and academic perspectives, School Design Matters results from a rich collaboration between schools, architects, engineers, educationalists and policymakers to consider what an inspiring teaching and learning environment might look life. Case studies and first-hand student and teacher experiences allow analysis of the ways in which environmental factors might transform pedagogy, shape patterns of leadership, improve student engagement and enhance social interactions within and beyond the school community. Experts in their fields, the authros acknowledge the signifiance of sociocultural contexts, reference relevant policy, and tackle the tensions, dilemmas and contradictions which frequently arise as schools and professionals in the design and construction sectors collaborate in the creation of buildings which fulfil the needs of diverse, invested parties--back cover.