Google's vice president of hardware design Ivy Ross has created an office building for her Silicon Valley team that is arranged around an atrium, skylight and staircase.
Ross worked with an architecture team to complete the Google Design Lab at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, where upcoming complex by BIG and Heatherwick and the 15-year-old Googleplex complex are also located

An existing, two-storey brick building, formerly used by LinkedIn, was redesigned to create a laboratory for the hardware team, which designs Google products like Pixel phones and Nest systems.
"We wanted the Design Lab to reflect our aesthetics and values," Ross told Dezeen. "We considered each area and what activities would take place there."
Ross has arranged the workspace arranged around an atrium topped by a skylight, which floods the ground level with daylight.
An open-plan space to work, eat and relax on this floor is furnished by custom-made wooden built-in furniture decorated with pale blue cushions that can be rearranged.

"Your surroundings change the way you feel, therefore, we wanted to create a selection of areas with different feelings so individuals could choose to work where they felt most comfortable," Ross said.
"It's fascinating to see where different people choose to go when they want a place to work away from their desks."

A wooden staircase scales the Google Design Lab, alongside a double-height shelf filled with...