Google hires German green architect to build new campus

May 10, 2011, 19:27 GMT

San Francisco - Google has hired the innovative German architectural firm Ingenhoven Architects to develop their last office campus, the company said Tuesday.

'We have commissioned Ingenhoven to develop our new offices,' Google spokesman Jordan Newman, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Newman declined to give any further details of the project, but local reports said the work would centre on land adjacent to the company's current headquarters, known as the Googleplex, in Mountain View, California in the heart of Silicon Valley. The new development would bring the company's total office space on the campus to more than 60,000 square metres.

The offices will be the first that Google has ever built. Until now the company has repurposed existing office space vacated by other technology companies.

Dusseldorf-based Ingenhoven is renowned for its innovative green buildings, an emphasis that meshes well with Google's own efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and champion alternative energy.

Google needs the new space because it is rapidly expanding its workforce, which has grown by more than 30 per cent to 26,000 employees since late 2009.

In January, Google said it planned a record hiring year in 2011, with its payroll expected to increase by more than 6,000 workers, at least 2,000 of whom would work at its home base in Silicon Valley.

Ingenhoven has been the design force behind the new European Investment Bank headquarters in Luxembourg, a zero-emissions rail station in Stuttgart and a 30-storey office tower in Sydney that features an open atrium along its entire height.

According to local reports, preliminary plans for the new Google development could be filed later this month with construction starting as early as next year.

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