Google opens new sustainable campus

Google says the site will operate on carbon-free energy by 2030. CREDIT: Iwan Baan. Google Bay View

Google has revealed details of its new Bay View Campus in California, US, that the company says will operate entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030.

The campus, designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studios in collaboration with Google’s design and engineering teams, is on a site of 42 acres with 1.1 million square feet of occupiable area and 1.7 million of built area.

The dragonscale solar skin draped across the canopy of the campus is equipped with 50,000 silver solar panels that reportedly create the capacity for seven megawatts of power per hour – around 40% of the building’s total energy needs.

The site also integrates the most extensive geothermal pile system in North America and is net-water positive.

The project is the company’s first ground-up developed campus. CREDIT: Iwan Baan. Google Bay View

“Working with a client as data-driven as Google has led to an architecture where every single decision is informed by hard information and empirical analysis,” said Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.

“The result is a campus where the striking dragon scale solar canopies harvest every photon that hits the buildings; the energy piles store and extract heating and cooling from the ground.”