The first campus built by Google | Bay View and Charleston East — Transcript

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1. 0:00(ducks quacking)
2. 0:02(gentle piano music)
3. 0:04- [Michelle] The one thing we know about the future
4. 0:06is we have no idea
5. 0:09how we're going to be working in 20 years,
6. 0:1210 years, even 5 years.
7. 0:17Charleston East and Bay View represent the first time
8. 0:20that we led the concept and construction
9. 0:21of our own major campuses.
10. 0:24And it's an opportunity to rethink
11. 0:26the very idea of what an office building is,
12. 0:28and rethink what's possible for the industry.
13. 0:34With this shape, we've had people walking by
14. 0:36and they're like, what is this?
15. 0:37Like, they don't even know.
16. 0:37It doesn't look like an office building,
17. 0:39which is so fascinating, because then when you come in,
18. 0:41you have no preconceptions of how to work
19. 0:44that comes from historic ways of working.
20. 0:46But instead, it's like a canvas
21. 0:49of creating new ways of being together.
22. 0:54With these projects, we really thought about people first,
23. 0:58using things like healthy materials and air quality.
24. 1:02Everyone has natural light
25. 1:04and has thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort.
26. 1:09Down on the bottom level is really like the market.
27. 1:12It's where we have our meeting rooms, cafes,
28. 1:14where you can connect with your community and collaborate.
29. 1:17And then up here, it's more quiet.
30. 1:19You're really focused on that immediate team.
31. 1:22-[Jeffrey] The premise around some of the team spaces is that
32. 1:24there is physical collaboration,
33. 1:26but there’s enhanced virtual collaboration that is going to happen also.
34. 1:29- [Michelle] This new hybrid world, work is going to change,
35. 1:33but this building can adapt and flex to meet that.
36. 1:37- [Asim] There's a straight line
37. 1:38from people-first design to sustainability.
38. 1:41It's actually the largest project
39. 1:42to ever pursue any element of the Living Building Challenge.
40. 1:46- [Thomas] And it seemed critical that this project isn't taking,
41. 1:50but actually giving.
42. 1:54There was the chance to breathe life
43. 1:57back into the natural landscape.
44. 2:00Not letting things like the rain water
45. 2:03just run away straight away, but capturing that.
46. 2:06(rain gently pattering)
47. 2:09- [Bjarke] The way that it is tucked into the nature
48. 2:12it’s not just a scenic garden
49. 2:14for the enjoyment of the neighbors and for the Googlers,
50. 2:17but it is also a highly performing landscape.
51. 2:21- [Asim] This is the largest geothermal pile system in North America
52. 2:24that allows us to eliminate natural gas for heating purposes,
53. 2:28helping us to make the building all electric.
54. 2:30And because we're saving a lot of water
55. 2:32that would otherwise have gone in cooling,
56. 2:35we're also getting water positive performance
57. 2:37out of this campus.
58. 2:38- [Thomas] There was a commitment at the highest level
59. 2:41to making something that was regenerative design.
60. 2:44(bright music)
61. 2:48- [Michelle] We brought on a very unique set of partners,
62. 2:51both in the design, as well as the build side,
63. 2:53people who were okay with trying out things that sounded crazy.
64. 2:57- [Jeffrey] They were chosen for a particular reason,
65. 2:59like innovation, they understood the challenge,
66. 3:01they were willing to try different things.
67. 3:04- [Asim] The amount of ingenuity I've seen
68. 3:06from the construction crews,
69. 3:07I can't even tell you all the stories.
70. 3:09That's a new way of thinking.
71. 3:10It's not top down.
72. 3:12It's actually collaborative at all levels.
73. 3:14-[Bjarke] Typically, you always do a full-scale mockup
74. 3:17as the last step before you actually build the building.
75. 3:20In this case, we were making full-scale mockups
76. 3:23before we even had a design.
77. 3:25- [Michelle] To really solve for these big, hairy problems,
78. 3:27we need to bring a diverse group of folks together,
79. 3:30from public agencies, sustainability experts,
80. 3:34environmental experts, who were willing to think differently
81. 3:37with us to make this happen.
82. 3:39- [Thomas] So there were things which were really
83. 3:41at the limits of what construction would ever let you do.
84. 3:44But the biggest one that we did make happen
85. 3:46was breaking down the separation
86. 3:49between building and power generation.
87. 3:54- [Bjarke] And suddenly it was the photovoltaic panel itself
88. 3:57was no longer some technical installation
89. 4:00that you hide on the roof.
90. 4:02It became this kind of beautiful material of the building.
91. 4:06Every single photon is turned to good use,
92. 4:08either for the perfect levels of daylight
93. 4:11inside the building,
94. 4:11and all the excess photons are converted into power.
95. 4:16- [Michelle] How do we make buildings that will be vibrant decades from now?
96. 4:20- [Thomas] Could we think about the design of something
97. 4:23that connects with people's feelings?
98. 4:25Emotion is a function.
99. 4:27- [Bjarke] It's not some kind of finished tombstone.
100. 4:29It's a living, working laboratory.
101. 4:32-[Michelle] Buildings that last do so not because they're perfect,
102. 4:36but because people care about them enough
103. 4:39to continue to change them.
104. 4:51So that's the whole story of the building, basically.
105. 4:54Should I erase it?
106. 4:56Leave it? Okay.