Archinect - News 2024-11-05T02:55:18-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/126826379/new-googleplex-will-be-built-by-robots New Googleplex will be built by robots Amelia Taylor-Hochberg 2015-05-06T13:02:00-04:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/fk/fkaf8zdf3xv949g4.png?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Mock-ups of the so-called &lsquo;crabots&rsquo; are featured in lengthy planning documents submitted to the City of Mountain View Council in Silicon Valley [...] &lsquo;Our objective is to create a solution that can be assembled efficiently and economically within pre-erected canopy structures by means of small, easily manoeuvrable cranes.&rsquo; &lsquo;Through the life of the buildings this [will] allow reconfiguration and maintenance&hellip;of the canopy envelope from within.&rsquo;</p></em><br /><br /><p>The new Googleplex campus expansion, designed by BIG and Heatherwick Studios in collaboration to accommodate 20,000 new Mountain View employees, will be constructed by "an army of robot-crane hybrids", the&nbsp;<em>Architect's Journal</em>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/8682076.article?WT.tsrc=email&amp;WT.mc_id=Newsletter2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">reports</a>. Citing planning documents Google submitted to Mountain View Council earlier this week,&nbsp;<em>AJ</em>&nbsp;reports that these "crabots" would be "a mash-up of flexible crane and robotic machine".</p><p>The construction method fits squarely with Google's aim to keep their campus flexible and reconfigurable after it's built. As Nicholas Korody explained in <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/121746764/google-unveils-big-heatherwick-studios-collaboration-for-new-campus-master-plan" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our coverage introducing BIG and Heatherwick's design</a>:&nbsp;"Eschewing immoveable concrete edifices, the campus would consist of a series of light-weight structures that can be moved around to accommodate new projects and product development as they unfold." Theoretically, these "crabots"&nbsp;could be the same employed to reconfigure the interior spaces as needed. Not sure whether they'd count among the 20,000, though.</p>...