Tech giants inspire creativity, teamwork with vast open offices
Famous tech companies both domestically and abroad are clamouring to create open and creative office environments for their employees. Their belief is that having an enjoyable working environment is crucial to becoming a world-class company.
Naver
Giant Web portal Naver moved its headquarters to South Korea’s Bundang, Gyeonggi province, in 2010.
The Naver headquarters, nicknamed the Green Factory, is 27 storeys high with eight additional underground floors. The company’s iconic green search bar design was incorporated into the building’s design to promote its brand image.
Naver’s headquarters also has a Green Library on the first and second floors that is open to the public, and the entire fourth floor is a cafe for employees to hold meetings and take coffee breaks.
Bicycle parking spaces are also provided for employees who commute by bike, as well as a separate tooth-brushing room for those who feel uncomfortable using the company bathroom to clean their teeth.
Daum Kakao
South Korea ’s second-biggest search engine company, Daum Kakao, has its headquarters on Jejudo Island.
Daum Kakao opened its headquarters in Yeongpyeong-dong, Jeju City, in 2012 with a total area of 125,619 square metres.
The main office building, named "Space.1," has a curved design meant to resemble Jejudo Island ’s caves and volcanoes and is five storeys high with one basement level.
The headquarters first began as a project to create a "creative office space" in 2004 and was built to value openness and communication within the firm. The second building, "Space.2," has a company-owned day-care centre "Space.kids" for employees’ children, as well as a guesthouse "Space.house." The building has meeting rooms based on a variety of themes – boxing ring, bathhouse, a prison cell and others – to boost creativity.
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics is building its North American headquarters in Silicon Valley. The headquarters will house the firm’s US device solution team, as well as the sales and marketing team.
Covering about 100,000 square metres and costing US$300 million (Bt10.1 billion), the new Samsung headquarters in the United States will be a 10-storey donut-shaped building designed by global architecture firm NBBJ.
The new headquarters is expected to have semiconductor research facilities, as well as a fitness centre and break room. Construction is about 85 per cent complete.
Google’s headquarters, called the Googleplex, is famous for its open and flexible space. The Googleplex has an open space not divided by cubicles, and also features outdoor tables and a walking trail.
Google is currently building a new office building near the Googleplex, expected to be partially completed by 2020. The exterior of the new building is expected be glass and the interior easily adjusted, like building blocks, to allow room for new projects such as driverless cars.
Apple
Apple’s current headquarters, called Apple Campus, was built in 1993 and is a seemingly ordinary office building. The late Steve Jobs suggested building a second Apple Campus in 2011 that would better fit their image of a creative IT company.
The second Apple Campus, due for completion in 2016, will be shaped like a donut with an indoor garden space that is bigger than a soccer stadium.
Apple Campus 2 is built with communication between employees as its priority, as the donut shape will allow them to meet everyone as they walk about.
Facebook moved to its new headquarters in Menlo Park, San Francisco, in March. The new building has no cubicles and a completely open space inside, allowing the 2,800 employees to freely share their ideas in the 40,000-square-metre office space. The rooftop also has an outdoor garden with over 400 trees.
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted the new headquarters to have a simple design in order to make an office space where the Facebook team could work together in harmony.
