On a recent trip to Minneapolis, Minn., we had the pleasure of stumbling upon Le Méridien Chambers Hotel, an art-lovers’ oasis in the middle of the Midwest. After checking into a nearby standard chain (nice, but boring), we were on the lookout for a local dinner spot, and ended up at Le Méridien Chambers’s restaurant. We were so impressed with the hotel’s creative environment, we chucked the initial reservation and stayed the night.

The boutique hotel offered us an experience beyond just a bed, a shower and a Continental breakfast buffet. The 60-room Le Méridien Chambers is home to more than 200 pieces of original contemporary art, including works by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Angus Fairhurst, Gary Hume and Sam Taylor-Wood. Art is integrated into public spaces and private guestrooms, as well as on display in the Burnet Gallery, named after prominent art collector Ralph Burnet, who originally opened the hotel in 2006 as the Chambers. In early 2010, the Chambers was bought by Paris-born hotel brand Le Méridien, which is so committed to creating innovative visitor experiences that it’s appointed its own “cultural curator” and even developed a signature hotel scent with Le Labo luxury perfumier founders Fabrice Penot and Eddie Rosh.

Art pervades Le Méridien Chambers. Walnut woven doors greeted us at the main entrance; a five-story mural runs the entire height of the main stairwell; room keycards feature work by select contemporary artists, video art lined our guestroom corridors. While sampling the sea scallops with Brussels sprouts and bacon, lamb meatballs, and the amazing house made gelati at D’Amico Kitchen & Osteria, we watched live, streaming video of its kitchen activity on a massive screen affixed to an outdoor courtyard wall.

Our goal at fathom is to connect people emotionally with an experience, and Le Méridien Chambers is an inspiring, sensory-rich example of that emotional connection. It takes art out of the self-contained museum, and turns it into something living, making the mundane hotel visit an experience to contemplate, to savor, and to remember.

So what is social innovation, you ask? Manzini describes it as capitalizing on the world’s most abundant resource—people—in order to create an environment centered on energy, intelligence, and positive action. Ideally, this environment would not only enable positive decision-making but also the freedom to choose and invent more sustainable ways of living. As Manzini put it:

Social innovation cannot be planned, but it can be made more probable by creating favorable environments and empowering creative people.

So the question becomes: How can we create these favorable environments and empower these creative people? And then: How can these environments and empowerments be sustained over time?

Perhaps one answer lies in Manzini’s discussion of public space. He defines public space as the space “in between work and home,” where creativity might be argued to realize its highest potential. Initiatives for renewal of the “in-between” space might include…

• neighborhood festivals
• urban vitalizations
• maintenance and caretaking
• community gardens

…or anything else that might serve to empower—and hopefully sustain—the community over time.

If we follow this line of thinking, then we might say that creative organizations such as our client’s R&D center ought to cultivate “in-between space”; that is, space suited to collaboration and informal brainstorming.

But if we think larger than this one project—perhaps toward ourselves as a company or toward the general industry of research and design—then we might ask: How do we create this in-between space for ourselves? What qualities of the time between home and work empower us as creative people?

These questions are especially relevant for fathom as we grow in people and in space. We are currently posed with the same issue raised in Manzini’s lecture (on a smaller scale, of course): How do we design for our own social innovation and sustainability? How can fathom capitalize on its most abundant resource—again, its people—to create a favorable environment for creativity?

If we look to the in-between space for inspiration, then we must find out exactly what it is about this space that allows our creativity to flourish. If it’s the challenge of navigating Pittsburgh streets then perhaps our environment should pose complex problems with satisfying solutions. If we get our best ideas while practicing yoga, then maybe our environment could stretch our minds in calm but strength-building ways. Or, if an afternoon walk revitalizes our thinking caps, then perhaps our environment should allow for a connection to the outdoors.

These ideas only begin to skim the surface of the in-between space and its potential richness for creative empowerment. As fathom continues planning for growth, not only will we be learning about our own in-between but also about how to discover the in-betweens of our clients, business partners, and colleagues—a process that can only enrich who we are as designers and researchers. Perhaps this, in turn, will increase our potential for social innovation, which, in its own turn, would surely enhance our sustainability as a company.