Silicon Valley, California, USA
American Prize for Architecture laureate John Marx and his team from Form4 Architecture, commissioned by Jeff Morris Company, create a unique office environment where employees want to be, where they feel welcome and hopeful, and where the space provides an advantage over their home environment.
Named the Aspirational Gardens, the project has recently been awarded a 2023 Green Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
This was a real challenge for the architects and the solution was a puzzle-piece-shaped floor plan that created six distinct interior neighborhoods, or Team Spaces, with natural light on three sides.
This was accomplished by carving out 30 by 40-foot Light Gardens from the 250 by 180-foot footprint.
These Light Gardens follow a place-based proportion and scale that encourages a sense of belonging and the “desire to dwell” by creating the feeling of an Outdoor Room rather than a linear path.
These gardens afford space for lush planting while Mass Timber construction in this LEED Platinum building further enriches a connection to nature.
On the sixth floor, the open-air Oculus garden provides an urban retreat.
The grand circular trellis opening is the defining aspirational destination for architectural seduction.
At the ground level, the street-facing levels of the garage are activated by two cafe / retail spaces and a generous lobby.
The sides of the garage are enhanced with ventilating green screens as a backdrop to linear gardens on the remaining three sides.
In this way, the architects were able to accommodate the large floorplates desired by Silicon Valley companies and the delicacy and human scale needed to attract tenants back to the workplace.
Project: Aspirational Gardens
Architects: Form4 Architecture
Lead Architect: John Marx
Client: Jeff Morris Company
Renderings: Form4 Architecture / Teapot Collective
