Google has presented the latest designs for its new Mountain View office campus, designed by BIG and Heatherwick Studio, ahead of a public hearing next week.
In a 67-page document submitted to Mountain View City Council on 23 January 2017, the technology giant revealed extensive details of its plans for Google Charleston East, the company’s first purpose-built office complex.
Renderings show designs for a building with an elaborate tent-like structure, developed as a collaboration between architect Bjarke Ingels‘ Danish firm and designer Thomas Heatherwick‘s London studio.
Rooms will be divided up into rectilinear pavilions, all sheltered beneath the roof canopy. The majority of the building’s facilities including laboratories, cafes, offices and events spaces will be at ground level, while offices will be raised up on a mezzanine level above. The roof itself will be made up of curved metal squares in both pale and dark grey, including a finish that will deter birds from flying into it, according to the document. It will incorporate photovoltaic solar panels and ‘smile-shaped clerestories’ to bring direct, indirect and diffused natural light down to the spaces below.
The rest of the building will be constructed using a minimalist palette of materials that predominantly include metal and glass. The floor plan is deliberately designed to not line up with the roof above, to create outdoor rooms at corners. Some of the spaces designed for these corners include ‘sloped savannah’, ‘hangout hill’ and a sculpture garden.
“The design of Charleston East includes a large canopy that regulates indoor climate, air quality and sound, and encloses flexible components that can be rearranged as necessary,” reads the document.
BIG and Heatherwick Studio first unveiled their ambitious plans for a new Google campus in February 2015. Billed as a ‘vibrant new neighbourhood’, it is set to be built by robots as a series of lightweight, mobile structures.
(Source:www.dezeen.com)
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