(ducks quacking)
(gentle piano music)
- [Michelle] The one thing we know about the future
is we have no idea
how we're going to be working in 20 years,
10 years, even 5 years.
Charleston East and Bay View represent the first time
that we led the concept and construction
of our own major campuses.
And it's an opportunity to rethink
the very idea of what an office building is,
and rethink what's possible for the industry.
With this shape, we've had people walking by
and they're like, what is this?
Like, they don't even know.
It doesn't look like an office building,
which is so fascinating, because then when you come in,
you have no preconceptions of how to work
that comes from historic ways of working.
But instead, it's like a canvas
of creating new ways of being together.
With these projects, we really thought about people first,
using things like healthy materials and air quality.
Everyone has natural light
and has thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort.
Down on the bottom level is really like the market.
It's where we have our meeting rooms, cafes,
where you can connect with your community and collaborate.
And then up here, it's more quiet.
You're really focused on that immediate team.
-[Jeffrey] The premise around some of the team spaces is that
there is physical collaboration,
but there’s enhanced virtual collaboration that is going to happen also.
- [Michelle] This new hybrid world, work is going to change,
but this building can adapt and flex to meet that.
- [Asim] There's a straight line
from people-first design to sustainability.
It's actually the largest project
to ever pursue any element of the Living Building Challenge.
- [Thomas] And it seemed critical that this project isn't taking,
but actually giving.
There was the chance to breathe life
back into the natural landscape.
Not letting things like the rain water
just run away straight away, but capturing that.
(rain gently pattering)
- [Bjarke] The way that it is tucked into the nature
it’s not just a scenic garden
for the enjoyment of the neighbors and for the Googlers,
but it is also a highly performing landscape.
- [Asim] This is the largest geothermal pile system in North America
that allows us to eliminate natural gas for heating purposes,
helping us to make the building all electric.
And because we're saving a lot of water
that would otherwise have gone in cooling,
we're also getting water positive performance
out of this campus.
- [Thomas] There was a commitment at the highest level
to making something that was regenerative design.
(bright music)
- [Michelle] We brought on a very unique set of partners,
both in the design, as well as the build side,
people who were okay with trying out things that sounded crazy.
- [Jeffrey] They were chosen for a particular reason,
like innovation, they understood the challenge,
they were willing to try different things.
- [Asim] The amount of ingenuity I've seen
from the construction crews,
I can't even tell you all the stories.
That's a new way of thinking.
It's not top down.
It's actually collaborative at all levels.
-[Bjarke] Typically, you always do a full-scale mockup
as the last step before you actually build the building.
In this case, we were making full-scale mockups
before we even had a design.
- [Michelle] To really solve for these big, hairy problems,
we need to bring a diverse group of folks together,
from public agencies, sustainability experts,
environmental experts, who were willing to think differently
with us to make this happen.
- [Thomas] So there were things which were really
at the limits of what construction would ever let you do.
But the biggest one that we did make happen
was breaking down the separation
between building and power generation.
- [Bjarke] And suddenly it was the photovoltaic panel itself
was no longer some technical installation
that you hide on the roof.
It became this kind of beautiful material of the building.
Every single photon is turned to good use,
either for the perfect levels of daylight
inside the building,
and all the excess photons are converted into power.
- [Michelle] How do we make buildings that will be vibrant decades from now?
- [Thomas] Could we think about the design of something
that connects with people's feelings?
Emotion is a function.
- [Bjarke] It's not some kind of finished tombstone.
It's a living, working laboratory.
-[Michelle] Buildings that last do so not because they're perfect,
but because people care about them enough
to continue to change them.
So that's the whole story of the building, basically.
Should I erase it?
Leave it? Okay.