Nooks capture energy in more places and times, like the crenelated folds and cilia in some body organs. Open Space is built around this idea of offering varying sizes and configurations of time and space. Margins are where the creative "edgy" work of individuals and groups gets done.

Nooks can be organized, and/or can be self-organized. Nooks are the time and space for meaning to be made -- for Harvesting (creating useful artifacts and creating Feedback loops that then feed back into the system).

They allow us to be in diverse emotional spaces without leaving the whole group, and enable the need to retreat, to be private. They allow people who want to go off and do their own thing, the space for the Law of Two Feet. The butterfly role in the Law of Two Feet (the lurker on the edges -- Harrison Owen's own invention) - creates nooks. Butterflies "preserve the coffee break" even in dynamic formats like Open Space that allow a lot of freedom for such things.

Co-housing is a living example of provision of such nooks. Likewise some mixed public/private spaces in Europe.

Metaphors: The Navajo pattern - space in the interval of triangles in their blanket designs. Alexander's alcoves. Private country clubs -- the way "white guys in golf carts" create their nooks.

Instruction:

• Don't get in the way or squelch nooks.
• Make sure there are places to go while still being "contained", held in the broader space.
• Don't time-constrain the agenda -- allow time to breathe between agenda items.
• Both the time and space should be bigger than the formal agenda requires.

Nooks are where relationships are created. Without them the facilitator becomes too central/important.

Caveats / Cautions:

Don't try to over-organize the nooks.
Don't constrain how/when they are used (e.g. don't choke off personal deal-making that happens in the nooks), allow them to be used for what people want.