May 6, 2008
Steve Jobs could teach you a thing or two about interior design
Posted May. 6, ’08, 10:44 AM PT by Aayush Arya
Category | Apple » Steve Jobs
He’s the founder of three companies, CEO of one of them, and the largest shareholder of a fourth. He’s a major player in computers, consumer electronics, music, and movies. He’s a billionaire, a pescetarian, and wears only one combination of clothing ever. Did we miss anything? Oh yeah, he’s not too bad at interior design either.
Brad Bird, the Oscar-winning director of Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles and Ratatouille, recently gave an interview to The McKinsey Quarterly for an article, Innovation Lessons from Pixar. When asked “what Pixar does to stimulate a creative culture,” Bird had this to say:
Then there’s our building. Steve Jobs basically designed this building. In the center, he created this big atrium area, which seems initially like a waste of space. The reason he did it was that everybody goes off and works in their individual areas. People who work on software code are here, people who animate are there, and people who do designs are over there. Steve put the mailboxes, the meetings rooms, the cafeteria, and, most insidiously and brilliantly, the bathrooms in the center—which initially drove us crazy—so that you run into everybody during the course of a day. [Jobs] realized that when people run into each other, when they make eye contact, things happen. So he made it impossible for you not to run into the rest of the company. [emphasis added]
That, indeed, is a brilliant thought. After all, the one place no one can avoid going to is the bathroom—what’s a better place than it to catch up with your co-workers? If anyone out there reading this post is planning to have an office designed in the near future, keep this little trinket of wisdom from El Jobso in mind. It sure worked wonders for Pixar.
The full interview is behind a pay wall, but you can read the nine key lessons distilled by Carleen Hawn on GigaOM.
[via Daring Fireball]
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You're not kidding. I work in a building that has three floors. Every floor is like it's own world. And it shouldn't be. All three floors need to talk to each other, and they don't. That's probably why it takes years for this company to get anything done. I've been here over 5 years and I don't know the names of over half the people that work here. Pretty sad.
So you are trying to tell me the bathroom is next to the cafeteria? I think the local Sanitary Inspector will be dropping by quite soon.
Aside from the bathrooms (which were scattered throughout the building), this is basically the design of Mariani 4 where Apple used to design its computers before the move the Infinite Loop. Since the building was leased, Steve probably had nothing to do with the design, but maybe he got the idea here. Also, the atrium was used for Friday beer busts and for division employee meetings.
BTW, what does Steve do with his billions? Invest, charity, spend?
For Martin: best as anyone can tell, "money" has never held much fascination for Steve. That's really a superficial thing and far below good design and "taste".
He still lives in a small house in PA/CA so I kinda doubt his billions mean much to him or anyone.
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Architects have understood social behavior and how to manipulate space to support or impede certain interactions for a long time. Job's idea, if it was his, is pretty mundane. I think the significant part of the story is that the idea was implemented. Many clients refuse to do the obvious because they can't see the vision and won't trust an expert.