Google’s plans for their new innovative London Headquarters were revealed from a planning application to Camden Council submitted on May 30.
This will be Google’s first headquarters not in the United States, according to Mashable. In the 1 million square feet project, Google wants the building to be seven to 11 stories and include a cafeteria, gym, swimming pool, and stores located on the first floor. The swimming pool itself will be 25 meters and three lanes (about half the size of an Olympic swimming pool), according to The Verge. And that’s just the basic stuff. Some of the more unique structures Google wants to build include a “multi-use games area, events center and landscaped roof garden,” according to the application submitted to the Camden Council, which can be found on their official website.
“Our design for the new Google Campus at King’s Cross is rooted in the local character of the area, taking advantage of the contextually defined building envelope while creating continuously cascading work environments that will connect Googlers across multiple floors,” said Bjarke Ingels, a founding partner at Bjarke Ingels Group (one of the studios involved in the project) to the King’s Cross Press. “By opening up the ground floor and activating the roofscape, the light and airy workspaces are sandwiched between the terraced gardens on the roof – and market halls, auditoria and shops on the ground.”
Not mentioned in the Camden Council application is a 210 seat auditorium for company-wide meetings, the rooftop garden will also include a 200-meter running track, and an amphitheater that has a 270-degree view of London, according to engadget. The resources will all be sustainably sourced to hold around 7,000 Google employees and is designed by Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels Group, according to a Kings Cross press release on the new Google building. In the application, Google asked for only four parking spaces total in one of their two basement levels.
“The area is a fascinating collision of diverse building types and spaces and I can’t help but love this mix of massive railway stations, roads, canals and other infrastructure all layered up into the most connected point in London,” said Thomas Heatherwick, the founder of Heatherwick Studios to the King’s Cross Press. “Influenced by these surroundings, we have treated this new building for Google like a piece of infrastructure too, made from a family of interchangeable elements which ensure that the building and its workspace will stay flexible for years to come”.
One of the most interesting structures of the new headquarters is moving blinds. The blinds will move throughout the day so that the employees aren’t looking into direct sunlight, also according to Mashable. Construction will hopefully begin in 2018 if the Camden Council approves of the application.
Google originally made plans for a London headquarters back in 2013. They started working with another British architecture firm Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, according to Digital Trends. After a request to rethink the design to make it more unique, the two ended their partnership and Google moved to work with Heatherwick Studios and Bjarke Ingels Group in 2015. Google wanted the construction done by 2016, the overall cost being 1 billion euros (or $1.13 billion U.S. dollars) according to Metro UK. The two design firms are also working on Google’s new environmentally sustainable campus in Mountain View, Calif. The application for that project was received by the City of Mountain View in 2015, and the project was approved for construction in March 2017.
This new headquarters shows Google’s growth outside of the United States and into Europe. Hopefully, within the next couple of years, Google will start building innovative locations in other countries.
Featured image via Pixabay
