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The clients wanted the space to inspire delight through exploration, and to be warm, reflecting the ideals of their products in the design, specifically: tactility, attunement to the human body, and sustainability. Human comfort was a primary consideration in the design development, with attention paid to the scale of human interaction–from the comfortable reach range for accessing a product to the viewing angle for visual displays. A sinuous, spine-like sculptural installation winds through the space, providing a 120-foot-long continuous interactive display for an array of hardware offerings. A cellular assemblage is designed to be a “Cabinet of Curiosities” that promotes active discovery with drawers to open, informative visual graphics, and 3D interactive displays.
Located within a larger, newly-constructed building within the Google Charleston East Campus, the Store is a primary hub where people from all over the world can visit, interact with products and displays, and learn more about the company’s design process, ethos, and production methods. The surrounding landscape’s contrasting forms of the surrounding landscape—the fluidity of San Francisco Bay’s Northerly estuaries and the man-made grids of the urban fabric–inspired the design of the spine.
The project achieved LEED Platinum certification, and a Living Building Challenge Materials Petal, which endorses products that are safe for all species through all time. The design uses No Added Urea Formaldehyde (NAUF) wood, and Red List Free materials throughout the project. From material selection to the scale of displays, the space was designed with human and environmental health and comfort in mind.
With a focus on human physiology and interaction, the store’s design integrates both organic and cellular forms that are choreographed to inspire the brain and body. While the spine engages the user at multiple heights and scales, and appears visually complex, it was designed to be simple and repetitive in construction. Eight modular sections repeat along the length, not only speeding up production time, but also allowing the team to build a full-scale mockup of the mockup. All edits were then made onsite and the remaining seven modules were added around the initial module.
The project components were designed to be adaptable, easily edited and future proofed while disguising its modularity and dense wiring needs through the careful arrangement of elements. At the wooden boxes on the spine, magnets were used to attach backs of differing depths allowing flexibility for various product display needs. The design also hides all structure, power, data and security systems from view. Developed in tandem with the Google Visual Merchandising team, all displays have the ability to be revised seasonally, with future product space needs in mind.
Collaboration with Google resulted in a completed assembly that invites a range of human interactions with the products, educate the public about Google’s product design methods. Winding through the space, the sculptural spine creates a fluid environment by subtly defining discrete areas within a large, programmatically flexible space. Googlers host lectures and events in the open spaces, utilizing the flexible seating and large-scale interactive screens
In 1998, co-founders Joshua Aidlin and David Darling began the studio around a woodshop, developing a hands-on practice driven by a reverence for resources. Today, this passion for making anchors the studio’s collaborative process. Our approach to each project is client and site specific, and includes open communication among clients, consultants, fabricators, and builders to achieve unexpected results.
We pursue architecture that is restrained, engages the senses, and connects us to place and to ourselves. In a world increasingly dominated by the visual and virtual, we practice multisensory design, one in which the way something feels, smells, and sounds is as important as how it looks.
Since its inception, the studio has garnered over 300 regional, national and international awards. In 2013, the firm was bestowed a Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award honoring design excellence, innovation and the enhancement of the quality of life.
