By Christopher Murphy CHAPTER 13The atrium initially might seem like a waste of space, but Steve realized that
when people run into each other, when they make eye contact, things happen.This understanding of facilitating brief encounters is further enhanced
in the Centralized Office through the careful construction of its walls.
Despite its concentric structure, the office’s walls do not extend up to the
ceiling. As Spiekermann puts it: “The walls are only shoulder height. If
a secretary wants to see if I’m in the outer ring, she can get up and look
across and see if I’m actually there.”
It can’t be a coincidence that these spaces, from the smaller spaces of the
d.school and the Centralized Office, to the larger spaces of Apple and Pixar,
encourage idea generation and idea exchange in the very fabric of their
design. These are true idea factories, intended to nurture that most magical
of elusive elements, the creative spark. By building spaces which encour-
age chance collisions we can finally pull together the three facets of the
idea-generation process, nourishing and feeding the creative spirit, unlock-
ing the ideas that lie dormant inside us. Opening the floodgates, if you will.
STRaTegieS
I’d like to suggest three techniques you can adopt to rethink how spaces
are organized to contribute to an ideas culture.
- Café culture
- The Lego office
- Free space
Café Culture
Break away, get out a little more and lose those punch cards. Marissa
Mayer may have banned teleworking at Yahoo! (while single-handedly re-
designing the company’s branding), but that doesn’t mean you can’t loosen
the ties of the workplace a little.