JHK’s Three-Act Play
Behold the proposed new Google headquarters, Mountain View (Silicon Valley), CA. Google, of course, has enough walking around money in its deep pockets to indulge in the most fantastic architectural status stunt — meaning that the diminishing returns of great wealth and cleverness will bite extra hard. This, uh, structure, by Bjark Ingles and Thomas Heatherstone employs all the dishonest tropes of our time in order to achieve techno-narcissist lift-off: 1.) the idea that buildings should erase the boundary between being inside and outside; 2) that “nature” is the sovereign remedy for the failure to provide real urbanism; that space functions best when it lacks definition; that work is really just play; and perhaps most insidious, that the modular fabricated materials of today will age gracefully and be repairable. I would not bet on that outcome at all. They say that empires build their most grandiose and grotesque monuments just before they collapse, and Google is kind of a sub-empire of the greater USA techno-clown empire. As the late Rod Serling might say: “…submitted for your approval, a mauseleum for the Information Age….”
Below, check out the childishly-conceived nature installation in all its greenwashed ambiguity. This is the kind of trendoid “landscape urbanism” crap promoted by the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Basically, a park minus artistry. Looks like it was designed by the late Thomas Kinkaid for a creation museum diorama.
Below illustration, find additional comments by Catherine Johnson
Additional Informed Comments
By Catherine Johnson
Middletown, Connecticut
Licensed Architect, Charter Member Congress for the New Urbanism.
(cjdraws@gmail.com)
Google wants a flexible building. “It is our responsibility to build something that reflects Our Age – technology.” Thus the proposed Erector Set with Stretchy Glass Stocking on top where you can have “a car factory or, after 5 years, something else!” But, poor Googlers, you’ve missed the mark. You’re trying too hard to be groovy. Your goal shouldn’t be on making a literal manifestation of “technology” on the building skin, but rather creating spaces that work best for human beings, and creating the habitat to support their psychological and physical well-being.The focus should not be on inventing new materials to build with, but on creating the kinds of spaces that humans seek and feel good in: intimate spaces, both inside and outside buildings, places with variety of activities, places where one can find stimulation and other places for self-refection.
The space for supporting human activity has changed very little over the past 8,000 years. We still use incredible stone factory buildings from two hundred years ago. Why? Their flexibility comes from of a size and design that reinforce a wide spectrum of human activity (dimension, height, permit natural light and air). Second, they were put IN THE RIGHT PLACE to begin with. They work because they are invariably located in a downtown where there are other things to do, both useful and for pleasure, day and night, accessible by foot rather than only a private vehicle sent specifically for that purpose.
Note: JHK’s 2015 Forecast is available now at this link: Forecast 2015 — Life in the Breakdown Lane
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Not shown is the giant parking lot required for such a structure. Even in sunny california-land it still gets cold and large amounts of glazing means large utility costs. I’m not sure what one actually does while working at information search engine and entertainment corporation google. Apparently riding bikes and taking yoga classes? Or is it to be so intertwined with the neighborhood that everyone can just bike to their cubicle? There better be real and not photoshopped storks and herons showing up in that engineered wetlands required for the, no doubt, LEED platinum this building wants to achieve.
I would take my block of apartments here in Spain over this monstrosity. Why do we keep trying to find a solution to a problem we solved centuries ago? By this I mean almost any city street in Europe where you can walk everywhere to effect every aspect of your daily life should be our model. It’s also a very affordable solution, not to mention sustainable. Taking things a step further, we could definitely live without cars in my neighborhood without too much of a disruption.
I’m confused as to why the people in the photo can’t bike or do yoga outside? Isn’t it in California, somewhere?
The whole thing would be so much nicer if they just took off the saran wrap (or whatever that stuff is) off everything, and just made a little village out of it.
It’s nice that they found Bob Dylan to make a cameo in the bottom picture there, though 🙂 Although I doubt he’d be caught dead in a place like this.
Why does it remind me of an airport terminal?
Google = Gov. They are in cahoots.
Looks like a dome after liposuction now showing a hip bone.There is a giant condom on the building that is textured for pleasure.The structure is humping under the covers that is not interfering with their career.Google is sex in the city with Android hookup culture.Now with yoga party instead of toga party.Endless money pumping will keep the bouncy castle inflated.Winslow Homer’s Snap the Whip is now Hipster Couple Plan the Shag.Medical marijuana is a landcape shrub maintained by historic crop attendants no racism revealed on canvas.
Being a fan of cheesy science fiction movies, my first thought was that the proposed Google HQ looks like a clear Blob has attacked it.
Beyond that, the depictions of hipsters doing yoga and bicycling inside their workplace, while outside a hipster couple (miniskirt for her, untucked flannel shirt for him, natch) stroll casually through the gardens, suggests that Google does not see its workplace as somewhere that people go to do their jobs before leaving for home, but rather, their home. It seems that in return for all this groovy stuff, Google expects its employees to spend most of their lives at work.
Isn’t “Slavery” the word for that sort of thing?
Also, shortsightedly (especially for an enlightened information aggregator like Google) is the lack of accounting for the rapid sea level rise that all the sciencey types are squawking about. It’s at 5 feet above sea level as of 1980 topographic data. Sea level is expected to rise exponentially from this point on, perhaps a couple inches per year.
I would be afraid to do yoga on this sort of exposed platform. Those figures make me nervous! I can’t believe the person drawing this thought it looked pleasant.
It reminds me of a megamall food court, with less charm. Probably less food, too, or maybe none.
I’m not sure that the people on that mezzanine thing are doing yoga.I thought maybe it was some ritual, ceremonial or religious dance to the gods Page and Brin. That may be the full-time job of those people.
Hey Kunstler, shouldn’t the “Eyesore of the Month” be a building that actually exists? The last few months you keep showing us drawings of proposed projects. You’ve made it pretty clear that you have one single idea of what a building should look like (bricks, two stories, columns, no parking lot) but shouldn’t you at least wait until a building exists before you label it an “eyesore”?
Bjarke Ingels is just the latest charlatan who has built a brand around novelty value. His work has little, if anything, to do with architecture, and even less to do with ‘place making’. As long as a gullible public and its decision makers mistake or confuse “weird shape” for “sophisticated architecture”, the likes of Bjarke Ingels, Daniel Libeskind, Steven Holl, Peter Eisenman, et al, will continue to get major projects that undermine the state of design. A greater tragedy is that these brash, showy, but intellectually crass imposters are allowed to teach impressionable students, thereby degrading the possibility of a future for architecture at all.
I thought of the NSC over Chernobyl at first glance.
Die Duschhaube.
Hmmm…proposed exterior looking great for a new, exciting E-ticket “experience” at any Di$ney “facility.” Either that or what your local landfill will look like camouflaged with a nifty recycled styrofoam and glass cover.
The interior encapsulates the ontological position of “Technotronic hypercapital’s weltangshaung – ennui. A birdcage for humans.
Who knows the message these moneyed buffoons and their starchitectural handmaidens are trying to convey. Is there even a message? Apple’s got the spaceship and Google’s got a diaphanous blob.Glory. IF they really wanted to show their technological savvy they would make the exterior look like a simple British police box.
Isn’t that a hothouse design? It’s sunny in California, won’t it get hot inside? I see no roof vents to let hot air out.