Palo Alto, California, USA
John Marx and his team at Form4 Architecture have designed a two-story office building that elevates and updates the typical forms of the vernacular tradition of Californian modernism, with office spaces that will open towards the natural landscape and the garden.
As the architects claim, “Verdant Sanctuary expresses its embrace of nature through each design element: its natural setting, its choice of material—it is almost entirely made of wood and glass, its dramatic roof design echoes the shape of a bird’s wings.”
Due to its dynamic flow, Verdant Sanctuary has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Located in Stanford Research Park, the epicenter of technological change, it neighbors 607 Hansen Way, an Eric Mendelsohn-designed building that was the original research and development building that started Silicon Valley.
The two-story, 52,872 square-foot office/R&D space emphasizes horizontality through its various roof scales and levels. Projecting and receding volumes create a lively building envelope rather than a static flat façade.
A generously scaled main entrance canopy is supported by structural elements that feature mass timber.
Utilizing passive sustainability strategies, the design uses large roof overhangs to shade the glass in the summer, and in the winter, when the sun is low, the large glass areas provide beneficial solar heat gain.
The building will be all-electric with PV panels for sustainable energy harvest and will feature a green roof as natural insulation.
This oasis is a pastoral break in a canyon of structures built on zero-lot lines along the El Camino Real.
The California xeriscape provides a buffer between the building and the street and harmonizes with surrounding buildings.
Glass walls are so clear and unobstructed that the roofs seem to float, and nature surrounds you providing a warm welcome and a place for creativity.
Project: Verdant Sanctuary
Architects: Form4 Architecture
Lead Architect: John Marx
Client: Sand Hill Property Company
Photographers: Renderings by Form4 Architecture / Teapot Collective
