Changing Gears

libraries.mit.edu

MIT's Building 20 was ugly, confusing and never meant to last. But over its 55-year history, the building was home to some of the most important innovations of the 20th century.

In an article published in the New Yorker last month, Jonah Lehrer wrote about the myth of brainstorming.

The myth is that the best way to foster new ideas is to let them spring forth in a group setting, without fear of judgment or criticism. Turns out, ideas, and the people behind them, need to be challenged and questioned.

And the space in which these ideas grow can play a huge role.

Deep into his piece, Lehrer tells the story of Building 20, a ramshackle space set up at MIT during World War II. The space was meant to be temporary. It was built from plywood and covered in asbestos shingles. But after the end of the war sent a flood of new students and researchers to MIT, the building stayed open out of sheer necessity. And, then Lehrer says, a curious thing happened:

Building 20 became a strange, chaotic domain, full of groups who had been thrown together by chance and who knew little about one another’s work. And yet, by the time it was finally demolished, in 1998, Building 20 had become a legend of innovation, widely regarded as one of the most creative spaces in the world.

Building 20 gave birth to the radar technology that helped win the war. It was home to some of the physics that led to microwaves. It was the birthplace of the first video game and the incubator for the Bose Corporation.

Lehrer writes that Building 20 spawned creativity in part because the “plywood palace,” was so poorly made. He says scientists felt comfortable remaking their space in Building 20 without permission. They’d tear down walls and even break through floor barriers when needed.

And the confused, sprawling layout of the building led to chance encounters with people in various fields.

Even longtime residents of Building 20 were constantly getting lost, wandering the corridors in search of rooms. Those looking for the Ice Research Lab had to walk past the military recruiting office; students on their way to play with the toy trains (the Tech Model Railroad Club was on the third floor, in Room No. 20E-214) strolled along hallways filled with the latest computing experiments

The phenomena that led to so many creative breakthroughs at Building 20 is known in economic circles as knowledge spillover, and it has a rich history in the Midwest.

Lehrer himself notes that the creation of the auto industry in Detroit is a classic example of knowledge spillover.

Here we’ll pick up the story from John Jackson, a political scientist at the University of Michigan. Jackson wrote in The New Economic Role of American States that the auto industry in Detroit was actually born out of the shipbuilding industry:

Great Lakes shipbuilding led to considerable investment in steam and gasoline marine engine production and in related machine shops and foundries. Internal combustion gasoline engines were particularly important in shipping on Michigan’s rivers and lakes, in contrast to ocean-going vessels which relied more on steam. The internal combustion engine proved to be far better suited to personal vehicles than steam or electricity.

It’s sometimes easy to forget now that Detroit was not the birthplace of the automobile. Even in the United States, commercial production of gas-powered carriages started in in Massachusetts before it came to Michigan.

But Detroit had extensive experience with internal combustion engines. And that experience spilled over into automobiles.

Ransom Olds, founder of Oldsmobile, got his start building engines for the ship building companies. The Dodge brothers repaired boat engines. Even Henry Ford spent time working as an engineer at the Detroit Dry Dock Co.

In a way, the streets of Detroit at the start of the 20th century were their own Building 20 – a place where innovators could mingle and build off each others’ ideas. The Dodge brothers were put to work by both Ransom Olds and Henry Ford before starting their own car company. It’s fair to say that these men weren’t afraid of criticizing each other, or challenging ideas.

The takeaway from all of this is that place matters when it comes to innovation. Knowledge spillover happens when talented people bump into each other and share, or argue about, ideas. Even if those ideas don’t seem related to the work at hand.

We wonder if the industrial Midwest still has the places that foster the kind of chaotic collisions of ideas that built our economy in the first place.

So, we want to know, where do you find unexpected encounters that spur creativity? Do you find them at the water cooler, talking to people in your department? Or the coffee shop, talking to complete strangers? Is your work space set up for these kinds of chance encounters? Can you knock down a wall if it helps you build on an idea?

Where is your Building 20?

Tell us in the comments.