It's no revelation that working for Google is about the most fun one can have while working for a mega-corporation. "Googlers" work in funhouses bursting with primary colors, free food, squashy lounge chairs, and swank places to relax. The tech giant's various headquarters are also known for the furnishings and design elements that are, well, apropos of absolutely nothing. Below: 12 of the best details from Google offices around the globe.
? Google's NYC office includes an apartment-themed conference room (1). It's supposedly for people who want to feel at home while at work, but it seems pretty clear that somebody just wanted to make a sofa out of a bathtub. Also in the NYC office? Secret rooms in the library (2). Because, sure, pretending to be in Clue is a real productivity-booster. Last but not least: slides (3).
? These dry-erase walls (4) are presumably for important thoughts, formulas, and algorithms, but one can also spot drawings of an X-wing starfighter and Wall-E at the London engineering headquarters. A doodle of the Pixar robot also appears in the Los Angeles office.
? Speaking of doodles, behold the "Doodle Hallway" in L.A. (5), which features a bunch of illustrated versions of—what else?!—the Google logo.
? Google's workout facilities (6) are a little insane. For instance, its London headquarters has a gymnasium, massage facilities, and a "bikedry" system that airs out and dries bicycles that braved the notoriously precipitous London clime. Oh, and let's not forget about the dance studio or the showers painted an orange shade that "whacks you with a slap of energy," or so says Penson, the architecture firm that designed the space.
? Ji Lee, the former creative director of Google Creative Lab, has a penchant for building tiny living room dioramas on ceilings. Naturally, at least one such installation appears inside the mothership (7).
? The "rock room" in the L.A. office (8) has Adirondack chairs, green carpet, botanical wallpaper, and rocks.
? Desks are inspired by an array of awesome non-desk things (9). Google's got bumper car desks, telephone booth desks, and build-your-own desks that look very much like Tinker Toys. Meanwhile, yurts and "huddles"—those small, enclosed spaces for meetings and brainstorms that fleck most Google offices—are often vessels for fanciful design. For example, in a London office designed by Scott Brownrigg, meeting spaces (10) were designed to look like beach houses and giant, primary-colored dice.
? The giant binoculars outside Google's L.A. office (11) are actually a building designed by architect Frank Gehry. This is not the only oversized object outside a Google office; there are giant desserts on the front lawn of the company's Mountain View headquarters to commemorate Google's Android operating systems.
? Representing detail No. 12 are the decor minutia: the submarine-type door openers (the ones that look like steering wheels), a room lined with stuff that looks like green pool noodles, a reception desk that's partially covered in Lego-like building blocks, cow murals, sand and surfboards, and much, much more.
· All Google Coverage [Curbed National]
· Google to move into Binoculars Building designed by Frank Gehry [LA Times]
· Google EMEA Engineering Hub [Dezeen]
· Google Campus by Jump Studios [Arch Daily]
· Google Office by Scott Brownrigg [Dezeen]
· Google Office Opens in Los Angeles [LA Times]
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