that word again...serendipity and the water cooler

[EVERETT813 at aol.com]

Comments on the 'water cooler' phenomenon:

Steelcase (major office furniture manufacturer in the United States---does
beautiful wood furniture, too) has an R&D building which I recall being in Grand
Rapids, Michigan (I could be wrong on that).   This building is a pyramid (4
sided) of about six floors (I've been there once 15 years ago).   Several
things are unique about that building.   There are only tiny, tiny elevators
because 'people don't talk in elevators' (they're forced inside personal space,
people turn and watch the floor numbers passing) but the DO talk on escalators.
Hence, every floor is reached by inside escalators.   This facilitates
'serendipitous' conversations and the 'seeing' of people as they move from floor to
floor.

At the center of each of the four sloping walls on several floors (all floors
I'm not sure about) there is a 'water cooler station' complete with water,
coffee, tea, etc. AND a set of round tables of bar height, with appropriate 'bar
stools' and fully supplied whiteboards/easel paper/pens, etc. for
'serendipitous' conversations.

What they have done, in these two and many more ways, is create an open space
(the inside of the building is open from the tip of the pyramid to the bottom
floor and has this enormous pendulum that swings and turns with the turning
of the earth) for 'happy accidents', for the unexpected, surprising
conversation.   For 'serendipity' to emerge.   I thought the thinking about, and design
of, that building was of a new and different order, creating something I'd not
seen anywhere else in my travels.   A container for creativity if I've ever
seen one.

Paul Everett

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