Skip to main content

Check out Google’s new vision for its next headquarters

If you’ve got a passion for architecture — and particularly if it’s related to tech company headquarters — then you’re going to love the renderings Google has uploaded for proposed new buildings in Mountain View in California. Sweeping curved roofs, transparent glass walls and movable modules are the dominant themes for Google’s new office space.

 Google HQ 2

Recommended Videos

“With trees, landscaping, cafes, and bike paths weaving through these structures, we aim to blur the distinction between our buildings and nature,” writes David Radcliffe, Google’s Vice President of Real Estate. The plans have been designed by Thomas Heatherwick (of 2012 London Olympics fame) and rising architecture star Bjarke Ingels.

Not everyone is as enthusiastic about the proposals as Google, however. Local residents are worried about the impact that a larger headquarters is going to have on the area’s infrastructure, and there are also concerns that non-Google employees are going to be priced out of properties in the city.

 Google HQ 3

For its part, Google is promising to give back to the local community with a series of bike paths, retail opportunities for businesses in the area, and new features for the local environment (such as owl habitats). Energy-saving measures are also a big part of the plans the company has put forward.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the proposals are the “lightweight block-like structures” which can be moved around inside the buildings. That gives Google the freedom to shift the internal layout of its offices as it changes the projects that it’s working on.

“We chose Mountain View for our headquarters 15 years ago because we love the beauty of the bay, the close proximity to great universities, the family-friendly environment and the chance to work in a city at the heart of Silicon Valley,” says Google’s David Radcliffe. “Today, we want to create office spaces that don’t just provide a great home for Google, but which also work for the city that has given us so much.”

You can see more of the proposals on Google+ or in the video below.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

David Nield
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…
Google’s new Gemma 3 AI models are fast, frugal, and ready for phones
Google Gemma 3 open-source AI model on a tablet.

Google’s AI efforts are synonymous with Gemini, which has now become an integral element of its most popular products across the Worksuite software and hardware, as well. However, the company has also released multiple open-source AI models under the Gemma label for over a year now.

Today, Google revealed its third generation open-source AI models with some impressive claims in tow. The Gemma 3 models come in four variants — 1 billion, 4 billion, 12 billion, and 27 billion parameters — and are designed to run on devices ranging from smartphones to beefy workstations.
Ready for mobile devices

Read more
Google’s new policy tracks all your devices with no opt-out
View of synced tab groups appearing on an iPad.

Google has begun enforcing new tracking rules across connected devices, such as smartphones, consoles, and smart TVs, as BBC reports. The tech giant once called the fingerprint tracking technique "wrong" in 2019, but has since reintroduced it.

Google has commented that other companies broadly use the data, and it started using it on February 16, 2024. However, that may not sound any better since fingerprinting gathers user data about devices' hardware and software, which can then uniquely identify a specific device or user.

Read more
Google employees are testing new AI Mode search feature
AI Overviews being shown in Google Search.

Google is working on integrating more AI features into its search engine. The company is now having its U.S. employees test a new feature called “AI Mode.” 

The publication 9to5 Google uncovered an internal email detailing that employees had been invited to dogfood (test), the AI Mode, which is intended to be a form of intelligent search embedded within Google Search. The feature adds “easy-to-digest breakdowns with links to explore content across the web.”

Read more