PLP Architecture based in the United Kingdom has disclosed the design for an office for Russian search engine Yandex. The 12-storey building, located in Moscow, will be clad in titanium to create “a beacon of technology” for the company.
The office will be 170000 square meters in the area and will house all the company’s staff. PLP Architecture wants to make the structure iconic which would stand out from the rest offices in Moscow. This will bring in a secure, interactive, and collaborative environment under one roof, thus, celebrating the company’s identity, collaborative achievements, and aspirations. Hence, they came up with the idea of titanium cladding for the headquarter facade and roof. Also, titanium adds depth and movement to the texture of the facade.
The building will feature a welcoming atmosphere as it will be lifted up and will give way to an active ground floor which will connect the streets to the large and open plazas and green public spaces on the other side. The publicly open ground floor is also home to educational facilities as well as co-working areas. Also, places like cafes, restaurants, and Yandex Museum will be designed on the site to highlight the company’s cultural and technological growth since the early 1990s. In addition to this, the mezzanine floor will be designed for the main reception area so that it will add permeability and access for pedestrians through the building. Eleven floors above the mezzanine floor will be dedicated to offices. Moreover, in order to increase interaction and exchange of ideas, the central hub will be designed in the heart of the building. This will be an open to sky space and will be home to collaborative zones, indoor green spaces, gadget testing areas, and additional flexible spaces. The workspace wings will be connected on three sides of the hub by a series of bridges and open staircases. The building will contain pockets with double-height spaces to add volume and dimension to it. Such spaces will be arranged laterally around the elongated cores and will be interspersed with shared amenity spaces which will accommodate physical exercise as well as casual digital exercises that could benefit the crowd throughout the day.
Furthermore, a series of double-height spaces will be designed along the perimeter of the structure which will connect floors and also breakdown vertical boundaries and give way to a creative way of engagement. The inside of the building will be unique in its sculpted form where people can witness the breakdown of the scale and a large number of interconnecting spaces. Along with this, the importance of fitness is also taken care of as a sports center with basketball and squash courts, a gymnasium, a large swimming pool, and other wellbeing initiatives like spas, treatment rooms, and saunas are designed on-site. Currently, a hotel is present at the site but it will be demolished later this year followed by construction after local authority approvals.
Once the building is completed, it will join other headquarters for internet companies built around the world. Heatherwick Studio and BIG are the architecture firms that are designing a campus for Google in California whereas Frank Gehry recently worked on Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters.
“Yandex’s unique position and offerings mean that it has very specific needs and requirements that necessitated a crafted and tailored design for their new campus,” said Luzzatto. They also stated that in order to come up with an innovative design for the Yandex headquarters, they had to study a variety of well-known campuses around the globe, starting from the IT sectors to the academic buildings. Hence, they were able to come up with this one of a kind decision which is a suitably inclusive workspace for young and smart people.
