Silicon valley is known to be the headquarters of the entrepreneurial culture. The high-end tech companies, the disruptive industry changing ideas, and the vibrant start-up culture are accolades fully synonymous with the valley. Over the years these companies begin as start-ups renting out office space and scale up to large companies.This culture of the belief in ideas and the never-ending human spirit is what drives the valley and indeed the high tech industry of America and the world. The likes of social network giant Facebook, search engine giant Facebook and a host of others attest to this booming culture of optimism of chutzpah and the richness in ideas.
Now in a natural extension of these ideals, these giants are beginning to shape the very space, which carved them. The landscape of the valley is booming with extensions of the spirit of these tech companies. They’re carving niches of what they hold to be their very ideals, what they stand for, the power of teamwork and ideas. The landscape of the valley is being shaped by big names in architecture.
The entrepreneurial culture is extending into the field of culture with big names like Frank Gehry, NBBJ, Foster&Partners making their mark.The culture slowly developing in the valley is that of the so-called tech campuses like the googleplex or the west campus at Menlo Park of Facebook or the over $2 billion apple headquarters. These campuses with their rich programmes serve to enrich the work experience by promoting cooperation to enhance ideation.
With richly designed landscapes, the west campus by Frank Gehry for Facebook is a 56.9-acre development previously occupied by Oracle. The building itself will be a 10-acre (approximately 435 600 square feet) warehouse-type layout that will allow for employees to sit out in the open with desks that can be quickly shuffled around as teams form and break apart around projects. The new eco-friendly space will accommodate a series of outdoor cafes, barbecues, and workbenches to complement the surrounding rooftop garden.
The architectural competition generated is quite interesting as it’s merely an extension of the strong productive competition between industry players who in most cases started from scratch and harnessed the power of their ideas.With these recent high-end commissions there’s no limit to the big names in architecture we will be seeing soon.
