Google has announced the opening of its new Bay View campus in Mountain View, California, with the neighboring Charleston East project in its final phase of construction. Together, they form the latest additions to Google's headquarters.
The web giant celebrates the first time it led the concept and construction of one of its own major campuses, boasting an extensive list of human-centered, sustainable features.
According to Google's project announcement, Bay View is an all-electric, net-water-positive facility with the largest geothermal installation in North America. Both projects report being the largest buildings in the world to pursue LEED-NC v4 Platinum and the largest to pursue elements of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Petal Certification.
Designed in collaboration with Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studio, the campus officially broke ground in 2017. The design's focus on people sought to be evident in the structures' materials, access to daylight, air quality, thermal comfort, and acoustics, the design team shared. The scheme seeks to accommodate flexible and hybrid working, ranging from collaborative spaces to those fashioned to foster individual and focused work.
When viewing the structure, what immediately stands out is its first-of-its-kind "dragonscale" solar skin, which comprises 90,000 silver solar panels with the capacity to generate nearly 7 megawatts of energy. The building will reportedly also be powered by nearby wind farms 90% of the time. The roof design serves the function of maximizing the amount of water that can be captured and stored for later use in irrigation, and its curved shape helps the solar panels capture more sunlight.
In addition to its solar roof, the 1.1 million-square-foot complex features a range of components that together work toward the company’s goal of running on 100% renewable power by 2030.
Its geothermal field heats and cools the building without the use of fossil fuels. It reportedly cuts the site’s carbon emissions by half and saves approximately five million gallons of water a year. The campus also recycles any water that’s used. All non-potable water demands are met using this reused water. Above-ground ponds that gather rainwater and a building wastewater treatment system serve as water sources for cooling towers, flushing toilets, and irrigating the landscape. This forms part of the company's commitment to replenish 120% of the water it consumes by 2030.
The campus features 17.3 acres of natural areas, including wet meadows, woodlands, and a marsh, that, according to the design team, aim to reestablish native landscapes and rehabilitate Bay Area wetlands.
Video courtesy of Google
8 Comments
BIG has been developing the Tent series for a while and it has improved a lot since this one. There's a lot of technical wizardry that goes into constructing these buildings - especially for the facade and structural engineers.
HOK did it first at Riyahd Airport! In 1984!
neat swoops - i'm sure they're nice to stare at from those very regular cubicles.. 20-20-20
Indeed. People shouldn't be allowed to publish workplace projects without providing a photo showing what they provided as the typical office or cube where the occupants actually spend most of the day.
The interior shot does look a bit underwhelming. A lot of ingenuity went into crafting those roof geometries and glazing but I guess there's only so much one can do with open office plans. So far, tent interiors tend to be either a flat surface, an isolated box, or a cascade mirroring the tent geometry. This project went for Options 1 and 3. That other BIG tent project in Johns Hopkins went for Option 3.
"A BIT underwhelming" lol - it looks like they bought standard steelcase furniture and dumped it in there. Looks more like a cheap furniture expo than a nice office.
better photos here:
https://www.mercurynews.com/20...
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