At the beginning of this year Google announced, that it has completed a US$ 1.6 billion deal to build a new UK headquarters on 10 thousand square meters of disused land behind King's Cross Station, underlining the global technology industry's commitment to London. Now Google just unveiled images of its newest campus, a 270 thousand square meters, 11-story behemoth that will be designed by award-winning architectural firm AHMM. Prior to this building's announcement, Google's London operations were split between two offices--one in Covent Garden and one in Victoria. The new headquarters, which will be located near London's prestigious King's Cross Station, will consolidate operations into a single building while attempting to blend into the neighborhood. The new office will be made from industrial materials like steel, glass, and cross-laminated timber panels, and it's designed to achieve BREEAM Outstanding certification. In decades past, the construction of a new office building in London would hardly be a newsworthy event, but the ingenuity of companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have changed that. Everyone wants to know-what kind of building do you create when money is no object and you employ some of the most creative and technologically savvy minds in the world? If the early looks at Google's King's Cross HQ are any indication, it won't disappoint. "This building is underpinned by cutting edge design intelligence and technologies to provide a sophisticated twenty-first century working environment for Google's staff," AHMM director Simon Allford told Dezeen. The building, which many are calling a 'groundscraper' will be multi-leveled, growing from seven stories high at one end to 11 at the northern end overlooking Regent's Canal. It's been suggested by some that buildings comprised of more wood than steel are actually better for the environment, leading to far less carbon emissions during the production process. Google appears to be testing the waters of this theory. "Much of the internal structure will be constructed using steel framing with cross-laminated timber panels - a first for a contemporary building of this scale. The building has been designed to meet the highest standards of environmental sustainability, ensuring low energy usage and incorporating state-of-the-art materials," Google stated. It's said that bold primary colors will adorn the steelwork, taking inspiration from architectural elements nearby. There are also rumors that the roof will feature a garden. Ultimately, Google and its design team hope to achieve BREEAM Outstanding and LEED Platinum ratings and deliver an overall carbon reduction of 40 percent. The new building will boast around 93 thousand gross square meters new, with approximately 67 thousand square meters dedicated to office space and around 4600 square meters slated for retail space at ground level. The new site is likely to include a 1860 square meter area for bike parking (about the size of seven tennis courts), and features a climbing wall between floors, a source close to the project told Reuters. If all goes as planned, workers will break ground on the new UK headquarters early in 2014, with completion scheduled for late 2016 or early 2017. The building is expected to create 1,500 construction jobs, and while there are only about 2,000 Google employees in the UK, the new office will have room for about 4,500, which means the tech giant is likely to be hiring in the next few years.

Google has been cleaning up existing buildings in cities across the globe, from San Francisco to Berlin, turning them into colorful work and play environments that are the envy of every cubicle worker. But now the company has unveiled plans to build a structure anew as an extension to their current headquarters in Mountain View, California. The corporate giant gave Vanity Fair the scoop on the green-roofed expansion, which was conceived in collaboration with Seattle-based design firm NBBJ. The 102 thousand square meter extension to the existing Googleplex in California will be constructed on an adjacent 170 thousand square meters site and will featured nine bent rectangles linked by bridges and a host of verdant courtyards and pathways. The buildings will be up to four storeys high and will be organized in accordance with employee work patterns. In other words, departments that work well together will be near each other, and there will be the usual communal and social spaces that encourage cooperation and creativity. One bridge will lead to a green roof and outdoor cafe and the entire complex will be heated with radiant flooring. This less energy intensive system will be the largest of its kind in the United States.

Google has completed a US$ 1.6 billion deal to build a new UK headquarters on 10 thousand square meters of disused land behind King's Cross Station, underlining the global technology industry's commitment to London, reported The Financial Times. The internet search group confirmed that it would start building a new 11 storey office block on the site, which it would use to consolidate operations from its existing offices in London. The land was acquired from the Kings Cross Central Partnership. As reported Reuters Google was investing US$ 1 million to buy and develop the site. The office building will be worth up to US$ 1.6 when it is finished in 2016. The deal, one of the most valuable property transactions in the UK since the start of the financial crisis, follows a string of high-profile moves by technology groups, including Skype, Oracle and Amazon, to take up office space in the UK capital. Matt Brittin, vice-president for northern and central Europe at Google, said: "This is a big investment by Google, we're committing further to the UK - where computing and the web were invented. It's good news for Google, for London and for the UK." Google's London staff are currently split between two offices in Victoria and one in Holborn. The move will allow the company to house all London staff under one roof. The company plans to keep its office in Manchester. Google also operates Campus, a seven-storey centre in Shoreditch that offers work spaces to technology and media start-ups as part of London's Tech City project. Google has traditionally leased its overseas offices but in the past two years has purchased premises in Paris, Dublin, and now London, its filings show.

Google announced construction of its first-ever Asian data center on December 8. The US$ 300 million facility is being built in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and will increase the company's reliability and speed in the region, reported constructiondigital. The ultra-modern center will incorporate innovative design features to make it one of the most efficient and environmentally-friendly facilities in the region. "One way we'll achieve region-leading efficiency (in Hong Kong) is by custom designing each element to operate at optimal efficiency," said Simon Chang, Google's head of Asia-Pacific hardware operations. The data center will use free cooling, adjust power usage for peak efficiency, and will run at higher temperatures than comparable centers. The center will be operational in 2013, and employ 25 full-time staff members. "We're working as quickly as we can get to this facility operational so we can keep up with rapid growth in capacity demand across the region. We're targeting early 2013 to start bringing the facility online," Chang added. As cloud-based technologies continue to expand, internet companies are looking to expand their capacity and reach. Google is also rumored to be building a data center in Singapore, and has already purchased nearly 25 thousand square meters of land - though no official construction date has been set.

Google has thrown its weight behind Tech City, East London's fast-growing hub for Internet companies, by signing a lease for a seven-floor building that will serve as a launch-pad for new start-ups and developers, reported Reuters. The centre, due to open in 2012, will house advisers from Google and other organizations that support technology entrepreneurs. It will be located close to Old Street round about, dubbed "Silicon Round about", in an area of London that has already attracted hundreds of new Internet start-ups. The move supports British Prime Minister David Cameron's ambition, announced in November 2010, for London's East End to become a technology centre to rival California's Silicon Valley. The plan was backed by a host of technology companies, including Google, Vodafone, Facebook and Intel. Google, which will retain its central London offices, said the centre would be the first initiative of its kind for the company anywhere in the world. According to Bloomberg, Google will take on more than 2.323 square meters of office space near Old Street until at least 2022. The company will pay about US$ 7.8 million over 10 years in rent, which exclude costs for refurbishment, according to an online brochure for the site. "Finding a suitable building is the first major step, and we hope to announce more details about the organizations we'll work with and how they will use the space in the coming months," said David Singleton, Google UK's engineering director. "East London is already home to hundreds of innovative British start-ups, and has huge potential for economic growth and new jobs over the coming years", he added.