What Architecture Can Tell Us About Facebook, Google, And Apple

May 27, 2013 in Daily Bulletin

Facebook, Google, and Apple are all building new corporate headquarters. Jimmy Stamp took a look at what the design of each of them said about the companies:

  • Tech companies used to have college-like campuses which would appeal to youth. Now the companies seem more interested in building giant monuments to themselves.
  • Apple’s headquarters will be a massive ring (pictured above). It is a walled garden made for the “cult of Mac” that keeps the rest of the world out.
  • Facebook is planning a single quarter mile long room with moveable chairs that can easily be rearranged. The fancy design and constantly changing configuration is an apt metaphor for Facebook itself.
  • Google is building nine separate buildings connected by bridges. When designing the building Google’s engineers used an algorithm that optimized the amount of “casual collisions” that would happen among workers.
  • Google’s hope is that this will lead to new creative ideas – although as with some of Google’s recent misfires, many won’t be fully thought out and will quickly be forgotten.

See what each of the headquarters looks like over here, and read about the opportunity that the companies have to define architecture.

Source: Wired