Slated to open in July, Samsung's new research and development headquarters in Silicon Valley is designed around a central courtyard across which workers on every floor can see their colleagues on every other floor. NBBJ/Sean Airhart
Slated to open in July, Samsung's new research and development headquarters in Silicon Valley is designed around a central courtyard across which workers on every floor can see their colleagues on every other floor.
This architectural rendering shows off the "glass donut" concept behind Samsung's new Silicon Valley hub. NBBJ/MIR
This architectural rendering shows off the "glass donut" concept behind Samsung's new Silicon Valley hub.
Thanks in part to new zoning rules in San Jose, California, encouraging denser urban development, Samsung's new building goes right up to the street instead of being surrounded by acres of parking lot. NBBJ/Sean Airhart
Thanks in part to new zoning rules in San Jose, California, encouraging denser urban development, Samsung's new building goes right up to the street instead of being surrounded by acres of parking lot.
An architectural rendering of the completed Samsung headquarters' exterior. NBBJ/MIR
An architectural rendering of the completed Samsung headquarters' exterior.
From its inner courtyard, visitors to Samsung's new headquarters are meant to see the building's most important feature---the people inside. NBBJ/Sean Airhart
From its inner courtyard, visitors to Samsung's new headquarters are meant to see the building's most important feature---the people inside.
A mock-up of workers inside Samsung's new offices. NBBJ/MIR
A mock-up of workers inside Samsung's new offices.
Silicon Valley cities are working to keep tech companies from migrating north to the more desirable urban environs of San Francisco. NBBJ/Sean Airhart
Silicon Valley cities are working to keep tech companies from migrating north to the more desirable urban environs of San Francisco.
View of the Valley from Samsung's new headquarters. NBBJ/Sean Airhart
View of the Valley from Samsung's new headquarters.
Forty-foot cantilevers support the floors surrounding the building's interior open space. NBBJ/Sean Airhart
Forty-foot cantilevers support the floors surrounding the building's interior open space.
Buildings dense with people are still relatively rare in Silicon Valley, which has historically favored sprawling suburban campuses. NBBJ/Sean Airhart
Buildings dense with people are still relatively rare in Silicon Valley, which has historically favored sprawling suburban campuses.
NBBJ/Sean Airhart
NBBJ/Sean Airhart
Once complete, the entire campus will stretch 1.1 million square feet. NBBJ/Sean Airhart
Once complete, the entire campus will stretch 1.1 million square feet.
Mobile devices have made physical offices less important than ever for staying connected to co-workers. But you wouldn’t know that from the massive building spree in Silicon Valley.
From Apple’s mothership to Facebook’s Frank Gehry-designed mega-campus, tech’s biggest companies are erecting new offices in the industry’s geographical heart. Samsung is also taking part in the construction boom. Its new semiconductor research and development hub in San Jose, California, is slated for completion in July, which could make it the first of the new tech giant headquarters in Silicon Valley to open its doors.
The campus was designed by Seattle-based architecture firm NBBJ. Design strategies that borrow insights from neuroscience and “big data” analytics have made NBBJ exceedingly popular among tech industry heavyweights. The firm’s other projects include Google’s new 1.1-million-square-foot office complex, Amazon’s “biospheres,” and buildings for China’s Alipay and Tencent.
One goal of the Samsung project was to do away with the parking-centric focus of so many suburban Silicon Valley corporate campuses. Instead the building prioritizes its human inhabitants. Shaped like a giant glass donut, the structure is designed around a central courtyard in such a way that workers on one floor can look out across and see their colleagues on the floors above and below. The idea is to encourage spontaneous run-ins that foster creative collaborations tech companies believe lead to meaningful innovations.
But first the building needs to be built to innovate in. If the headquarters opens as scheduled, the construction process will have taken only two years from groundbreaking to moving in. As part of the building process, workers erected temporary columns to support 40-foot cantilevers until the work is done and the columns are cut away—a process of subtraction that NBBJ compares to 3-D printing. In Silicon Valley, even concrete and steel speak the language of tech.
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