How did the Massachusetts Institute of Technology building 20 become a „magical incubator”?
When we talk about buildings and office spaces that support creativity, we almost immediately think of the Googleplex, or the Apple Park. In our mind's eye, bright, playful, and colorful spaces, groundbreaking interiors, and designer furniture appear. We fondly regard these buildings as temples of creativity, where both external and internal architectural solutions serve to support creativity and the free flow of ideas in every possible way.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT) is undoubtedly one of the best and most renowned universities and research institutions in the world: within its walls, a total of 97 Nobel Prize-winning scientists have emerged over the past 85 years.
During World War II, in 1943, feverish work began at the university: a new three-story building was quickly erected on the campus for the Radiation Laboratory (RadLab). The strategically important role of the research institute is well illustrated by the fact that by 1945, 20% American physicists had passed through its walls. The RadLab developed radar systems that enabled the identification of German bombers and submarines, among other things.
The plans for the nearly 20,000 square meter building were created by Don Whiston, an architect and MIT alumnus, who had less than one working day (!) to prepare the designs. It was already evident from the plans that the building would not win architectural awards. The new university building, erected at a breakneck pace in just 6 months, became a clumsy golem devoid of charm. There is no sugarcoating it: it was ugly inside and out.
It received a dirty white asbestos cement covering, and the flat roof was covered with tar paper and gravel. The roof heated up in the summer, causing almost unbearable heat on the upper floor, while in winter it just poured out the cold. The interior design was not exactly ideal either: the space was divided by long, dimly lit corridors and winding rooms. The walls were thin, and due to the poor windows, ventilation was hardly possible.
The MIT building 20 did not receive a permanent name because it was considered temporary (it was supposed to be demolished six months after the end of the war) – it operated for 55 years. Despite its weak external and internal attributes, this building became one of the most innovative centers in the United States, a melting pot of knowledge and creativity: the researchers and scientists working here won 9 Nobel Prizes.
Creative chaos
It was not easy for anyone who wanted to visit a specific department in the MIT building 20. The floors were numbered according to the system accepted in Great Britain (and most European countries). In this scheme, the ground floor has no number, or is marked with 0 or G. The numbering used in the United States and Canada differs from this: the ground floor is considered the first floor. In building 20, the British floor numbering was used in an unconventional way, so the ground floor rooms (which are considered first floor rooms in the American system) were numbered 0. As a result, if someone was looking for room 20B - 119, they had to knock on door 19 on the 2nd floor of wing B.
A total of 6 wings were connected to each other (A-F), so the letter indicating the building also appeared in the room numbering. However, the letter designation of each wing did not follow the alphabetical order (for example, wing B was the name of the central part connecting all the buildings, while wing E was wedged between A and D).
Due to the chaotic numbering, inexperienced visitors could easily get lost and likely wandered through half the building before reaching their destination.
Collaborative spaces
Various offices, research labs, and educational rooms were also scattered throughout the building, so staff from different departments often met and exchanged words with each other in the long hallways. This allowed the building's residents to get to know each other's work and research areas. The dialogue and time spent together led to valuable relationships. It was inevitable that those working in the building would mix, talk to each other, and share ideas. The meeting of different scientific fields activated the „magical incubator.” Noam Chomsky, one of the most famous residents of Building 20, recalled his time here:
„[The MIT Building 20] looked like it was going to fall apart. There were no amenities, the plumbing was visible, and the windows looked like they were about to fall out. But it was extremely interactive.”.
Flexibility
Within Building 20, researchers had great freedom to shape the interior spaces. Due to the building's temporary nature, the main conduits (water pipes, telephone wires, electrical wires) ran bundled along support brackets placed on the ceilings of the hallways. If someone needed an additional power source, only a few tools were required, and the transformation could begin. If a particular project required more space, the thin partitions could simply be taken down. Thus, the residents of the building could create ideal working conditions without long approval processes, outside contractors, or maintenance personnel.
When Professor Jerrold Zacharias experimented with building an atomic clock, he removed two floors in his laboratory to make room for a three-story metal cylinder.
Diversity
The building, mockingly referred to as „the Plywood Palace,” was originally supposed to be demolished six months after the war. However, due to a law facilitating the further education of veterans returning from the front, a large number of new students arrived at MIT, making the building indispensable once again. The MIT Building 20 functioned as a temporary dormitory, and later many research departments, laboratories, and offices moved into its walls. The not-so-imposing, temporary building did not have a prominent role on campus, so it was favored for fresh projects, startup or experimental research, and various student clubs and groups also relocated here.
The MIT Building 20 housed 4,000 professionals across 20 fields. Within its walls operated, among others, a nuclear laboratory, linguistics, philosophy, and electrical engineering departments, a particle accelerator, a cell culture lab, and even a piano repair workshop.
Noam Chomsky, a linguist and philosopher, worked for decades in one of the „miserable, numberless holes” of the building, where modern linguistics was shaped under his leadership. Professor Amar Bose utilized the building's features to create the perfect test lab for his acoustic experiments. The Tech Model Railroad Club, one of MIT's student organizations, operated in room 20E-214 (on the 3rd floor of the building) – from which the first hackers emerged. The TMRC programming community created the interactive graphic game Spacewar! on a PDP-1 computer in 1962.
By the end of the millennium, the originally temporary building had become completely outdated, and the university administration decided to demolish it.
On March 27, 1998, an all-day farewell celebration was held in honor of „the magical incubator.” The former residents of the building have since regularly commemorated the ugly building, regarded as a symbol of innovation, playfulness, creativity, and collaboration.
Are you interested in the topic?
I recommend to you:
- Tim HARFORD: Creative Disorder, HVG Books, Budapest, 2017.
- Building 20
- The open source history of MIT’s worst, most important building
- Groupthink
- MIT's Building 20
- List of Nobel laureates affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Tech Model Railroad Club
- Storey
