This week, [Google] is expected to propose new headquarters — a series of canopylike buildings from Heatherwick Studio, a London design firm known for works like the fiery caldron at the 2012 Olympics, and Bjarke Ingels [...]
The project in Mountain View, which Google has not made public but has discussed with members of the City Council, is likely to aggravate an increasingly testy relationship between the company and community leaders who fear the company is overrunning their small city.
— nytimes.com
Both Heatherwick Studio and BIG have gained global success working on an impressive variety of scales, from the infrastructural to the sculptural, and also happen to both have relatively young founders (Heatherwick is 45, Ingels is 40). While details aren't expected until later this week, it feels safe to say that the design will continue Google's urbanification of its campus – borrowing elements from urban planning and "spontaneity generating" strategies for a new HQ that has BIG's playfulness and Heatherwick's artfulness.
More recent news from the firms:
Heatherwick Studio showcases their multi-disciplinary design skills in the "Provocations" exhibition
Let the fighting begin: London Garden Bridge faces legal challenge
BIG's Telus Sky Tower breaks ground in Calgary, Canada
Playing with climate at BIG's "Hot to Cold", now open at the National Building Museum
5 Comments
Google and BIG make perfect sense: a sign of our cheap, gimmicky, sinisterfakehappy times.
Safe prediction: lots of Lego-like, swooping gestures. Not a lot of class, materiality or weight. Would have been more surprising if they picked a good architect.
Lightperson, So harsh.
Sorry, that was a little too real.
I guess Michael Bay was unavailable, amiright?
Either way, this will make the arch. critics happy, they can talk more about their favorite subject: silicon valley (which represents .000000001 of the population). Then again, they are pretty weird places.
I don't dislike BIG but I also don't disagree with you.
Between Lego fetishism, Google's never ending college campuses as urban ideal, video game nostalgia, Comic-book movies, and Comic-book architects, there isn't much adult culture anymore. It's 1984 in a package that looks like our childhood memories.
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