A closer look at Google's first mass timber buildingFriday 29 Nov 2024 Google has announced a new office that showcases the principles we’ve long applied to our real estate: creating sustainable spaces that allow Googlers to do their best work. It’s our first building made using mass timber, a new type of engineered wood that involves layering and laminating smaller pieces of wood together to create larger beams and walls. Take a look at 1265 Borregas in Sunnyvale, California, and find out how it was designed to benefit both Googlers and the community in the state our company calls home.1265 Borregas reflects our latest ways of working. The building features neighborhood spaces designed to support active collaboration, hybrid connections, and heads-down focus work. It also showcases our focus on nature-based (or biophilic) workplace design. Research suggests people are able to focus and do their best work when surrounded by nature, and a building like this one achieves this by keeping the timber exposed inside and outside of the space, while providing natural daylight and sweeping views of the Northern California landscape. Automatic wooden blinds adjust to the sun’s position and minimize glare, and an underfloor air system provides optimal comfort. Decreasing carbon emissions Mass timber’s regenerative qualities and its ability to absorb and store carbon over time — a process called sequestration — makes it a sustainable and environmentally friendly choice for building. It also helps decrease carbon emissions that come from the extraction, production and transportation of traditional building materials. Because of this, 1265 Borregas is projected to have 96% fewer embodied carbon emissions1 than an equivalent steel and concrete structure, when you factor in sequestration over time. Achieving these climate benefits requires careful attention to the mass timber lifecycle, which is why 100% of the structural mass timber lumber we used for 1265 Borregas was procured from responsibly managed forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Helping the community and industry One of the biggest advantages of mass timber construction is that pre-fit building parts accelerate structural assembly, resulting in less construction traffic and on-site construction noise (like jackhammering), while also decreasing construction waste. At 1265 Borregas and its neighboring sites, we planted three acres of pollinator-friendly native plants, including coast live oak, California sagebrush, California wild rose and common milkweed. On the northeast corner of the building, you’ll find public artwork — inspired by Atari, which was previously headquartered in this location. This building shows what’s possible when you combine sustainability and construction efficiency into an office building, while also prioritizing employee wellbeing. We hope that others in the industry will join us in this approach in support of a more sustainable future. More >> Source & image credit: Google  |
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