Behind the Glass Curtain | Metropolis Magazine
The convivial atmosphere was something the cofounders, who were very involved with the design process, wanted to foster. For Wilkinson, who is accustomed to clients demanding revolutionary work spaces, this was nothing unusual. However, after spending time with Page and Brin and the Google engineers that would occupy the building, Wilkinson realized that he was dealing with a distinctly different species of personnel. “We’ve always worked with people who were a mix of left and right brain,” Wilkinson says, “but engineers are very left brain. They might work in teams, but they require a high level of concentration; they sit in front of the computer and crunch formulas in the most extraordinary way.” Despite the fun, “it’s a very demanding work culture,” says Andrew Laing of DEGW, who has done workplace research studies with other technology companies such as Microsoft. “It’s designed almost as a living environment—it’s much more like being at a university than being in a conventional work environment.”
A VERY interesting write-up and gallery on the design and building of the Googleplex. I found the difficulties they had in designing for engineers, yet still ending up with a relaxed functional space real interesting. It’s true that most engineers don’t want a lot of distractions… but to balance no distractions with design… and using glass. That was cool. Good read and very interesting.
Tags: Architecture, Design, Google, Interesting
[...] Meeting some of these people you could probably see how much work it’s taken to get themselves this far. I have to say that the interviews seemed sorta fluffed over. I liked the article about building the Googleplex more in it’s depth. [...]