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A look inside Google's new Tel Aviv HQ
Cobbled streets, bohemian cafés, a slide instead of a lift (what could possibly go wrong?) and a tractor adorn the 'communication landscapes' of the search giant's new Israel office
The other day we reported from a cutting edge design show at the Holon Design Museum in Tel Aviv. More high-minded aesthetics and high jinks can also be found at the newly opened Google HQ in the city.
Now we all know that high tech businesses like to go a bit mad on their interiors. Some of this is because they just can, and some of it is to keep their demanding and easily-employable-elsewhere staff happy. Google must think its Israeli staff are at particular risk of jumping ship, as the new Tel Aviv HQ truly makes the mind boggle.
![Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - photo by Itay Sikolski](/resource/contemporary-google-office-headquarters-in-tel-aviv-israel-13.jpg)
Designed by Camenzind Evolution in Switzerland with Israeli firms Studio Yaron Tal and Setter Architects, this building seems to have everything. There are orange trees in a meeting area, an artificial beach peppered with workstations and slides connecting different floors.
![Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - photo by Itay Sikolski](/resource/contemporary-google-office-headquarters-in-tel-aviv-israel-12.jpg)
But while some of these gimmicks have cropped up in other such HQs, this office has a site-specific theme. The mini scenarios staged every time a Googler turns a corner are based on a genuine place in Israel - a new spin on Google maps perhaps?
![Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - photo by Itay Sikolski](/resource/511c653eb3fc4b42d2000173-google-tel-aviv-office-camenzind-evolution-p1200788-528x352.jpg)
“Each floor was designed with a different aspect of the local identity in mind, illustrating the diversity of Israel as a country and nation,” say the designers. Hence the corridors done up as narrow cobbled alleys flanked by window boxes and arched windows. And hence a room full of surf boards – in homage to the city’s fledgling surfer culture – and the room decked out like a desert landscape.
![Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - photo by Itay Sikolski](/resource/a-look-inside-googles-tel-aviv-office-15.jpg)
There is a serious intent behind these room sets, we are told. “Nearly 50% of all areas have been allocated to create communication landscapes, giving countless opportunities for employees to collaborate and communicate with other Googlers in a diverse environment that will serve all different requirements and needs.”
![Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - photo by Itay Sikolski](/resource/contemporary-google-office-headquarters-in-tel-aviv-israel-15.jpg)
Which means the other half of this eight-floor HQ possibly comprises more conventional desking. It’s pretty crazy, and we wonder if it actually feels like a place of work but with the work-life divide increasingly blurred it's a risk that Google was obviously prepared to take. If there was something as conventional as a stand to rest it on, we'd take off our hats to them.
![Back to work now - Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - Google HQ Tel Aviv, Israel - photo by Itay Sikolski](/resource/contemporary-google-office-headquarters-in-tel-aviv-israel-22.jpg)