Connective Journey

It has been quite some time since architecture as modification of the existing has become a major critical theme in design production. The value assigned to adaptive re-use due to emergency of climate change has given further prominence to this architectural theme. While it is unlikely that buildings will have nine lives like cats, they can most certainly have two, if not three. The challenge of creating urban and architectural identity in pre-existing conditions uninvested in fostering human bond is particularly acute in complexes done during late modernism all around Silicon Valley. Falling under the umbrella of Brutalism, these structures are often unfriendly and perceived as environmentally hostile by the general public. Since the clients were committed to preserving the existing compound, an integral part of the design task was to add humanity and poetry to a challenging stylistic moment. This project appropriates the bones of the existing to create another reality, pushing the concept of adaptive re-use to the next level of design invention. Taking stocks of what the starting point was, the project is an investment on bringing a landscape sensibility in the hard edges and geometric commitments of precast construction. The existing office campus is located in the rolling hills of Palo Alto, presenting a challenging 75-foot drop. Since Collaboration is the leitmotiv of the Silicon Valley industry, connectivity became a primary driver of this project. In thinking about the new compound as an artificial topography, the design relies on an elevated level of walkways whose organic silhouettes traverse the blocked forms of the existing structures. To de-emphasize the austere character of the existing buildings, the proposed design builds on the pastoral dimension of the natural site to give poetic legitimacy to this intervention. Conspicuously absent in the existing buildings was a clear entry expression. To counteract this fatal flaw in the original scheme, several outdoor rooms were designed at critical points of the project to signal the various entrances to the complex. The grand canopies hovering outdoor rooms and as well as the sequence of courtyards characterizing the path across the site are both monumental in scale and intimate in character through fireplaces and other amenities that afford multiple opportunities for exterior inhabitation throughout the compound. This is a series of interventions in combination with the walkways to fundamentally change the overall character of this space. The dimensional strength of the new architectural order is determined through the insertion of the canopy motif, sculptural and light at the same time. The elevated walkway determines a new ground plane and an equal novel horizon reorganizing the occupants’ perception of a current static compound. The overall intent of the project was to establish a dialog of this uneventful structure with its magical setting. In promoting a more consistent use of the outdoors as an extension of the workplace the very notion of working acquires a new dimension. Living and working in the park is the way to be in California.