Office space: Google
Workers and visitors are at no risk of forgetting which country they are in, thanks to the Penson Group’s nod to Britannia.
Google has refurbished its central London headquarters and nearby engineering facility to include vegetable gardens, dance studios and cafés.
The cushy library shows that Google appreciates the tangible as well as the virtual.
The bustling cafeteria.
Not your nana’s living room: the mixture of textiles and plush couches soften the hard edge often associated with tech companies.
Two Google employees relax.
Themed spaces make Google’s London HQ a rabbit’s warren of inspiration.
So enamoured was Google of Watford-based architecture firm Penson that it commissioned them to design not only the global company's engineering base in Buckingham Palace Road, but also its UK HQ in Covent Garden.
The former, which consists of 13,000m² of floor space, has been likened to the Starship Enterprise, and includes cutting-edge gaming rooms, music studios, a park, coffee lab, lounges, micro-kitchens and an auditorium labelled Tech Talk. There’s also an android studio and flight pods, designed as laid-back spaces for coworkers to hang out in.
Across town, Google’s Covent Garden 14,800m² HQ (both fit-outs are featured in the images above) lies at the other end of the design spectrum, with ‘secret gardens’ (wireless private booths), parks, a ‘granny flat’, retro-themed café and allotments on the ninth floor, where staff members are encouraged to grow their own vegetables. There’s also a town hall-type auditorium and a gym/dance studio with gob-smacking views over the south of London.
“It’s a commercial property solution that ticks all the fun and practical boxes,” says Lee Penson, founder of Penson. “It’s about designing your heart out with a normal-ish budget.”
