Welcome to the future! The Googleplex is coming, and it’s exactly how you imagined it: a bustling metropolis full of luscious parks, cyber cafés, public art, cycle paths and yoga classes… all encased in gargantuan glazed bubbles, naturally. When Google’s Vice President of Real Estate David Radcliffe spoke of his company’s search for the ideal architects to work on the tech giant's huge new campus, he described a global quest akin to the assembling of superheroes in The Avengers of design: “We scoured the world, looking for a special architect, who could really do something different… and we really got down to what we believed were the two best in class.” Google’s “best in class” — Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studio — were selected on strengths that Radcliffe hopes will bring a combination of qualities to the master plan, reflecting a multitude of ideas that could only come through a collaborative effort, rather than a single firm. Heatherwick and Ingels. Via Dezeen BIG was chosen for their experience in community-based projects, not to mention Bjarke Ingels’ singular penchant for marrying form with function, as in projects such as the part-building, part-snow-capped-mountainKoutalaki Ski Village. Second up, ...
Welcome to the future! The Googleplex is coming, and it’s exactly how you imagined it: a bustling metropolis full of luscious parks, cyber cafés, public art, cycle paths and yoga classes… all encased in gargantuan glazed bubbles, naturally. When Google’s Vice President of Real Estate David Radcliffe spoke of his company’s search for the ideal architects to work on the tech giant's huge new campus, he described a global quest akin to the assembling of superheroes in The Avengers of design: “We scoured the world, looking for a special architect, who could really do something different… and we really got down to what we believed were the two best in class.” Google’s “best in class” — Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studio — were selected on strengths that Radcliffe hopes will bring a combination of qualities to the master plan, reflecting a multitude of ideas that could only come through a collaborative effort, rather than a single firm. Heatherwick and Ingels. Via Dezeen BIG was chosen for their experience in community-based projects, not to mention Bjarke Ingels’ singular penchant for marrying form with function, as in projects such as the part-building, part-snow-capped-mountainKoutalaki Ski Village. Second up, ...