< Previous112 052 THE LIQUID NATURE OF WORKSPACE The new head office, a 280,000 m3 built volume, has been sandwiched between two spaces of atonement: the Garden of Eden on the roof and the Grotto in the parking lot. In the second decade of the third millennium it would not have been environmentally correct to leave the 1,500 asphalted parking spaces and the roads visible –nosy neighbour Google would only have gone and exposed them to a planetary audience. So the cars are parked on the ground floor but concealed under the office storeys and only the sky blue bicycles, the shuttle linking the two sites and the collective limousine- like white buses which pick up and drop off the employees in the San Francisco bay area can be seen from above. a few cars shyly peek out from under the edges of the concrete slab but no worry the satellites cannot see them. Seven metres up stand the rooftop trees. Planted in 13,834 m3 of soil, they are already mature and represent the most common native species. The park’s 3.6 hectares make it larger than the Grand Trianon in Versailles and maintenance is far more sustainable with drought-resistant grass and shrubbery. There are earth paths and rest areas dotted around with names such as Palo Duro, Timucuan, Duero Valley... The Facebook roof is more than just a terrace, more than just a garden. It is a reachable Garden of Eden. Facing a horizon of swampland and backing onto a forest of detached houses in Hamilton avenue, the employees come up here to bond with the landscape without unbonding from their screens. Work goes on in every single corner of this building. Furthermore, the roof is what the satellite will relay to the rest of the world: a large park , instead of the standard service roof; the envy of the neighbours. Who could resist giving it a like? THe oFFiCe on THe grass The green roof sinks down and folds over to display the green experience from the interior.113 a+t a+t the office on the grass Above, seating area on the roof garden, with the salt ponds of the San Jose Bay in the background. Below, the car park hidden under the workspace.138 glossary Huddle Room Meetup spaces inside the office environment, with informal furniture, where employees can have 3- or 4-person conversations. Informal Mentoring Relationship built up between two people, whereby the older of the two listens, advises and trains the younger person, with no obligation or contract. Mechanical Turk Simple low-paid digital system for carrying out routine work which is done by people rather than machines as it requires a minimum level of human intelligence. Workers are casual and home-based. Microworker Worker carrying out small tasks for on-line companies. The worker chooses the hours and the workplace. As this work takes up only a few minutes of the working day, it is compatible with a full-time job. Multi-generation Workforce The following generations all co-exist in the current workplace: Babyboomers (born between 1940 and 1964), Generation X (1965- 1980) and Millennium or Generation Y (1981-1995). Generation Z (1996-2010) is the next in line.139 P ETE r Wür MLI J ASPE r S A n Id A d the office on the grass A polar setting, complete with snow and penguins, surrounds these informal socializing and meeting spaces (huddlerooms) for three or four people which are divided off from the office with white string curtains which provide a certain degree of privacy. In this office, there are spaces for concentrated activity, aimed either at private reflection or for working in small groups, which takes place in yurt-like constructions made from wooden structures and triangle- shaped elements filled with absorbent material. Huddle Room Google Zurich Hurlimann Areal, Zurich, 2008 Camenzind Evolution Cisco Meraki San francisco, 2013 Studio o+A148 18731857 Public elevator Elisha Otis New York Otis invented a braking element as a safety system for elevators which boosted public confidence. The first commercial elevator was installed in a large department store located at 490 Broadway. The elevator was a resource necessary to vertically connect the different storeys in the building and this led to the speculative development of the high-rise office. tyPewriter E. Remington and Sons Ilion, N. Y. In the last quarter of the 19th Century, Remington launched commercial production of the QWERTY-keyboard typewriter which was to become an office standard. The expansion period lasted slightly over a hundred years until the late 1980s when the word processor and the PC led to the end of mass use. Timeline Major innovations made in the office environment since its inception.149 187618851902 the office on the grass telePhone Alexander Graham Bell The possibility of transmitting information over long distances enabled the administration space to become separate from the production space. The office building typology was born. air conditioning Willis Carrier Brooklyn, N. Y. The first central air conditioning system was installed in a Brooklyn printer’s to control the humidity of the paper during the printing process. Four years later Carrier was to patent the Apparatus for Treating Air that brought the onset of air conditioning systems which would later be installed in most modern office buildings. Structural Steel frame William Le Baron Jenney Chicago The Home Insurance Building is considered to be the first high- rise building constructed using steel columns and beams. It was the headquarters of an insurance company. The aim of the design was for bright open-plan spaces. The brickwork modular openings in the facades are the precursor of the glass-steel curtain wall. The steel frame optimized use and distribution of the interior space due to a good ratio between the net floor area and the gross floor area.Next >