Google Headquarters, Clive Wilkinson Architects. Mountain View, California. 2005

The Google Headquarters masterplan is the result of redevelopment and expansion of the company's offices, simply organised into work areas arranged along a main axis.
The plan for the headquarters is based on four basic principles: flexibility to respond to the staff's needs and to the variable composition of work teams, interaction among different rooms, designed to accommodate three people and allow users to control light, sound, air flow and other environmental factors, balanced relationship between places of work and places for relaxation, plus areas for hosting seminars, conventions and training workshops.
High technology, energy conservation and sustainability are the project's most important aims.
According to the AIA judges: "Elements of playfulness and humour are integrated with advanced technology... Tent-like conference rooms create quiet spaces that contribute to a tranquil working atmosphere within a highly energized environment... It's a place where we'd like to work."

www.clivewilkinson.com
www.aia.org

Francesca Oddo