Google"s Covent Garden Office Space
Big tech companies and unusual commercial properties go hand in hand. You only have to look at Facebook's headquarters, with its games consoles and ping-pong tables, or the offices of Google in Zurich, which feature an adult-sized slide, to get an idea of the fun-focused approach taken by these big companies. Now Google has well and truly brought this approach to the UK, with the opening of its Covent Garden office space in 2012.
The 16,000 square foot Covent Garden office space has been created by award-winning architects PENSON, and keeps up Google's reputation for all things weird and the wonderful. It's decked out with union flags and funky chairs, and there are striking variations in design from room to room - but, generally, the overriding theme seems to be nature and naturalness. Throughout the offices, you'll find untreated (or untreated-looking) wood panels, natural-looking fabrics, and - most strikingly - Astroturf-style carpeting that makes the floor look like a freshly-mown lawn. There are even hanging basket-style lightshades! If there was an award for the most 'progressive' Covent Garden office space, it's fair to say that Google's new work-pad would have it in the bag.
Believe it or not, Google has taken the environmentally-focused theme even further, by installing gardens on the balcony and even providing areas for staff to grow vegetables. As you'd expect, these natural-looking areas have been given naturally-inclined names. Google has bestowed the different sectors of its office with such 'flowery' names as Secret Gardens, Google Green, Grannies Flat, Google Park and Allotments. Clearly, Google has taken the green-and-pleasant design aesthetic very seriously in its Covent Garden office. It also boasts stunning views over London, giving it a tangible but implacable sense of 'Britishness' - but its views and its decor give the impression of being perched over the entire country.
The Covent Garden office space also features a gym, a cafe, a dance studio - perhaps in response to Twitter's inclusion of a yoga studio in its headquarters - and even a specially-designed event hall known as the Town Hall. This meeting space boasts a video wall, and seats 200 people. The gym, meanwhile, features the now-expected massage rooms and showers, but, innovatively, also includes a 'bike-dry'. This is a place where bicycle commuters - having cycled from home in the rain - can leave their cycles so that they'll be nice and dry by the end of the day.
It's all very impressive, but - surprisingly - it doesn't seem to have cost all that much, at least in terms of how much past refits by big corporations have been known to cost. That's because PENSON has made excellent use of the existing features in the Covent Garden office space that they appropriated. They've also made extensive use of recycled and reclaimed materials. This is in keeping with the 'green' feeling that permeates the space, and also helps it to smell great thanks to the judicious use of timber flood boards.
The 16,000 square foot Covent Garden office space has been created by award-winning architects PENSON, and keeps up Google's reputation for all things weird and the wonderful. It's decked out with union flags and funky chairs, and there are striking variations in design from room to room - but, generally, the overriding theme seems to be nature and naturalness. Throughout the offices, you'll find untreated (or untreated-looking) wood panels, natural-looking fabrics, and - most strikingly - Astroturf-style carpeting that makes the floor look like a freshly-mown lawn. There are even hanging basket-style lightshades! If there was an award for the most 'progressive' Covent Garden office space, it's fair to say that Google's new work-pad would have it in the bag.
Believe it or not, Google has taken the environmentally-focused theme even further, by installing gardens on the balcony and even providing areas for staff to grow vegetables. As you'd expect, these natural-looking areas have been given naturally-inclined names. Google has bestowed the different sectors of its office with such 'flowery' names as Secret Gardens, Google Green, Grannies Flat, Google Park and Allotments. Clearly, Google has taken the green-and-pleasant design aesthetic very seriously in its Covent Garden office. It also boasts stunning views over London, giving it a tangible but implacable sense of 'Britishness' - but its views and its decor give the impression of being perched over the entire country.
The Covent Garden office space also features a gym, a cafe, a dance studio - perhaps in response to Twitter's inclusion of a yoga studio in its headquarters - and even a specially-designed event hall known as the Town Hall. This meeting space boasts a video wall, and seats 200 people. The gym, meanwhile, features the now-expected massage rooms and showers, but, innovatively, also includes a 'bike-dry'. This is a place where bicycle commuters - having cycled from home in the rain - can leave their cycles so that they'll be nice and dry by the end of the day.
It's all very impressive, but - surprisingly - it doesn't seem to have cost all that much, at least in terms of how much past refits by big corporations have been known to cost. That's because PENSON has made excellent use of the existing features in the Covent Garden office space that they appropriated. They've also made extensive use of recycled and reclaimed materials. This is in keeping with the 'green' feeling that permeates the space, and also helps it to smell great thanks to the judicious use of timber flood boards.
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