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BIG releases plans for Google's second campus with zigzagging form in Sunnyvale

United States Architecture News - Jan 17, 2018 - 07:25   18783 views

BIG releases plans for Google's second campus with zigzagging form in Sunnyvale

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has teamed up with the world's search giant Google once more to design its second campus in Sunnyvale, California, which will be comprised of a pair of two office blocks with terraced roofscapes.

BIG is already working on Google's Charleston East campus with Heatherwick Studio and the company's first UK Headquarters, again in collaboration with Heatherwick Studio. 

Google's new Sunnyvale campus will encompass a total of 1m square foot (92,903 square metres) - separately 505,000 and 537,000 square feet (47,000 and 50,000 square metres) hillside campus in neighboring Sunnyvale. 

BIG releases plans for Google's second campus with zigzagging form in Sunnyvale

Situated in Moffett Park on Caribbean Drive, the two zigzagging volumes, featuring hillsides, gently rise from the landscape to form zigzagging form and terraced roofscapes – connecting 4,500 Google workers to their community and natural environment from any floor.

Mercury News report that Google has already filed a proposal with Sunnyvale city officials in December 2017 for a two-building, 1.04 million square foot project, which will be called as "Caribbean", and that would be large enough to accommodate 4,500 Google workers.

The new development, comprised of two office blocks, features floor-to-ceiling glazed windows and allows workers to walk on roofs, ride a bike on inclined roofs and includes plenty of plants, vegetations to use public spaces around the buildings.

BIG releases plans for Google's second campus with zigzagging form in Sunnyvale

Although BIG does not publish detailed information about conceptual plans, media reports say that one of the new Google office complexes will reach at 5 stories. Newly-released conceptual images show that the building will be accessible from all directions since Google aims to reduce cars on the roads and increase biking, shuttles, public transportation and more.

The company also aims to design "housing scheme" on the campus to increase live-work capabilities and create mix-use communities, discussed as part of the major development. 

"Housing is part of our thought process in Moffett Park," said Mark Golan, chief operating officer of Google’s global real estate investments & development unit. 

“A new mixed-use community where you have live-work capabilities, makes a lot of sense. Housing and transportation are two huge issues for the Valley overall, and they are huge issues for Google." 

"One of the best ways to address this is by creating mixed-use communities that allow people to live close to where they work, which allows for a vibrant community and also helps the transportation."

The company expects to place its workers on the campus around 2021 and earlier this month, Google paid just over $210 million for buildings, land and a parking garage in the area that had been owned by NetApp. 

However, Google will purchase the majority of Moffett Park this year, when the company bought about four-dozen properties from affiliates controlled by one of its real estate partners, CBRE.

BIG releases plans for Google's second campus with zigzagging form in Sunnyvale

"The proposed project will enhance the area by replacing a collection of aging, low density structures with two new buildings and a redesigned site," Google stated in documents submitted to the city.

Google's Sunnyvale campus is just one part of Google’s Silicon Valley expansion plans. The company has also been buying and leasing buildings and property, and sketching out development plans near its Googleplex headquarters in northern Mountain View.

The interior design of the office complexes will be designed by Clive Wilkinson Architects and American landscape studio Olin will design landscape of the project. 

According to an article published in Silicon Valley Business Journal on February 28, 2015, Google's new California HQ will be built by robots - which are actually called "crabots". 

Robots will help traditional cranes to place, dismantle or move some basic elements of the interior structures, like partition walls, floors, ceilings, or steel frames, during construction. This will reduce construction process in hours, rather than months.

All images courtesy of BIG/Google

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