Just spent quite a while reading through the MIT building 20/22 archive website. Interesting stuff; it sounds like an unusual space in which creativity was fostered. On the site, Professor Jerrold Zacharias said of his experience that:

"...you not only start things but you also start [them] with a certain independence of mind. It's this attitude that I think you should look for in a place.... It doesn't matter that it's dirty and noisy and hot. The important thing [is] the people."

This perspective that it is the people over the environment that matters is somewhat at odds with my original post, but certainly worth considering. Could it be that rather than the physical environment, it is the social environment that is key?