Serendipitous idea exchange

An excerpt on Steve Jobs and the culture of Pixar from The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky (emphasis mine):

Steve would also spend the energy required to bend the will of headstrong architects until they aligned with his vision. James told me one story about Steve's influence at Pixar. While he didn't get involved in storytelling or Pixar's day-to-day operations, Steve took 'a very active role when it came to planning the company's physical structure and design. Tom Carlyle, who oversaw facilities for Pixar at the time and would later help with Apple's new Spaceship campus, worked closely with Steve to conceive the vision for Pixar's "town square concept,” an area located at the building's center that also housed the bathrooms. The idea was to pull people together every day, whether they liked it or not, to promote "serendipitous idea exchange” when nature called. Collisions between people from different teams, Steve felt, were core to Pixar's creative process. James recalls that Steve also encouraged each Pixar employee to "modify your space and go crazy,” recognizing how central freedom of expression was at Pixar. Of all the things Steve could have spent time on at Pixar, not to mention his other responsibilities, including leading Apple, he chose to focus on space because he knew what that meant for the company.

This reminded me of MIT’s Building 20, known as “The Magical Incubator.”