PICTURES: The fit-out of Google’s new state-of-the-art office at King’s Cross reflects a tech giant that has grown up.
Gone are the giant slides, hammocks and primary colours that have become synonymous with Google offices around the world. Instead, there is a more sophisticated and sustainable fit-out at its new home, 6 St Pancras Square – a 365,000 sq ft office designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.
It has been described as the “college” version of Google, with the youthful characteristics which tech and media companies have tried to replicate the world over, having matured over its “kindergarten and high school” phases.
“We’ve become more mature as an organisation and a company, and the design here reflects the maturity of the people in the business, and the business itself; IT is maturing,” Google’s Joe Borrett told Estates Gazette on a tour of the building.
However, while the search engine giant might be taking a more adult approach to the workplace, that does not mean the fun has gone completely.
View from Google’s rooftop terrace: Click and drag the image to move around the skyline
The office, which will be home to 2,500 Googlers over the coming months, including those working on the firm’s Android phone software, and also staff from Deep Mind, its artificial intelligence startup, is one of the few worldwide Google locations to have an in-house cookery school to promote healthy eating and collaboration.
Neon signs mark rooms themed around David Bowie and Harry Potter, which were named by Googlers themselves, and there are £5,000 sleep pods. Plus, one of the 11 floors includes a model train set.
One of the key design features are modular units given the name “Jack”. They serve as meeting rooms, but yet can be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere in a matter of hours or days.
Jack is the more practical and understated version of the tents, huts, igloos and caravans that Google has experimented with in its other campuses.
Staff are being encouraged personalise the modules, by painting them or adding fabric. “Rather than the internal fit-out defining how the business works we want the business to define the environment in which they work so Googlers get what they need,” said Borrett, Google’s director of real estate and construction EMEA.
“I call it the room of requirements: if you require this kind of room we can build it really quickly.”
Other features of the office include a giant metal and oak central staircase running over the upper floors, a running track and gym, a high-spec theatre with a wall-to-wall media screen, and a wrap-around, Wi-Fi-enabled terrace with views across the City and west London.
Borrett did not comment on plans for Google’s proposed 1m sq ft headquarters on a nearby site, but on whether the firm’s new look would be expanded across its portfolio, Borrett said: “In reality this is a slightly different form of Google’s ethos of collaboration and innovation. But in respect of the EMEA portfolio, things will forever be changing, innovating and evolving; just being Googly.”
The 6 Pancras Square site, owned by AXA Investment Management and developed by BNP Paribas is part of the King’s Cross Central Partnership’s 67-acre King’s Cross regeneration site. Google took the space on a 15-year lease following a decision to redraw plans for its proposed headquarters.
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