Google has entrusted the elaborate reimagining of its Mountain View campus to BIG and Heatherwick Studio. The plans were announced last Friday. According to New York Times reporter Conor Dougherty, the new Googleplex will appear like "a series of canopylike buildings."
In a video, David Radcliffe (Google's VP of Real Estate and Workplace Services), explains the company's philosophy in hiring Ingels and Heatherwick. Radcliffe calls BIG, Bjarke Ingles' firm, "ambitious," renowned for launching "community-focused projects." To Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio, he attributes "attention to human scale and beauty." Together, the masterminds plan to reimagine Google's campus as an environmentally responsible Mountain View neighborhood as welcoming to unaffiliated residents as it is to Googlers.
Buildings, roads and natural areas will be amalgamated and in doing so, Ingels and Heatherwick hope to reenergize "a valley that's changed the world."
In order to accommodate Google's myriad projects, the new buildings will be translucent, mutable structures that the company will adjust according to its needs. The campus will accommodate bike and pedestrian paths, cafes and shops, as well as greenhouses and other ecologically-sensitive spaces.
Photos courtesy of Google.
