Celebrating the regional climate, biodiversity and start-up mentality of California’s Silicon Valley, the project brings together five dispersed research groups into a new R&D innovation campus in Santa Clara, enabling diagnostics digital transformation and research into reducing hospital-borne infections.

The design establishes one culture and incorporates the client's standards across the campus’ five buildings to create bespoke, nuanced experiences that foster collaboration and showcase the client's innovation and pioneering spirit in a unified hacienda environment.

The project connects people with nature at every given moment. Laboratories were strategically located and designed to offer researchers access to great naturally lit workspaces and views to nature. Windows into labs promote visual connections to science, to nature, and to other people, while collaboration spaces inside the labs make for quick, efficient informal collaboration.

In the workplace, the design deliberately positions taller furniture and built rooms to create indirect highlights and break down the large expanse of open work area into a series of human-scale neighborhoods. Employees can choose their workstations from a mix of sit-stand desks or bespoke library tables. An assortment of work areas offers a variety of distinct comfort factors and promotes user choice and mobility. Polished concrete floors, open ceilings (revealing the building structure and services) create elevated ceiling heights that feel gracious and reinforce the start-up ethos and the pioneer spirit of Silicon Valley.

A grand café with outdoor dining space serves as the heart of the campus, drawing employees together for dining and barista-made coffee moments throughout the day. On each floor, a centralized convivial space encourages social interaction across teams while preserving other areas for quiet, heads-down work. Lush, native indoor plants improve acoustics, air quality and reiterate the hacienda experience that capitalizes on the California climate by melding the interior with the exterior.

Photography: Tim Griffiths