Palo Alto, California, USA

Named for its butterfly-inspired angular canopies that adorn the project’s exterior, Folded Wings is an office campus designed by Form4 Architecture and Studio Five Design for Sand Hill Property Company in the tech epicenter of Palo Alto, California.

Form4 Architecture’s Folded Wings has been recently awarded a 2022 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

Folded Wings office campus features two two-story buildings, a central courtyard, surface parking, and a two-level underground parking garage.

Building 1 is 115,425 square feet of new construction, and Building 2 is 72,662 square feet.

The first consequential decision in the design was to angle the mid-point of the footprint to outline an urban plaza porous to pedestrian circulation.

This move delivers a tangible reward in the quality of public space generated, creating a human-scaled village.

The angles used to bend the building and to define the butterfly section are entirely intuitive.

The parti plan follows good practices in workplace planning, while at its edges, a controlled articulation of in-and-outs significantly confers visual interest, thanks to the hypnotic interplay of light and shadow as sun rays hit the exterior surfaces.

The two-story structure cantilevers the cutouts on the upper flooring, essentially becoming canopies shielding direct light to the floors below.

The Butterfly Pavilion, a free-standing structure with a canted canopy, signals access to the two levels of parking below.

Upon arrival from the parking garage, visitors encounter this butterfly theme embodied in a folded façade and folded roof.

Multiplied, these folds break the scale into visually comprehensible units that when knitted together add richness and texture to the massing.

This symmetrical angling of two planes around an axis that is applied to the facade demonstrates how repeated application yields architectural unity rather than a chaotic jumble of discrete design episodes. 

Although this is an office building for one technology tenant, its overall appearance yields a form of warm and lyrical modernism at the scale of the pedestrian.

The recesses add texture and interest all around the building exterior, exhibiting only minor variations despite the different orientations.

The numerous overhangs on the first floor and the recesses on the second floor, as well as cost-effective solar control, allow for a significant amount of glass to be used while still making them LEED Certified buildings.

Echoing the butterfly canopy that signals access to the garage and other portals scattered in the landscape and connecting the ground planes to the floors below, a high-tech version of the butterfly marquee (featuring fritted glass, specialized fittings, and a canted column) marks the main entrance to the buildings.

These compelling and refined constructions beckon the visitor to the experience of a most elegant glass box.

Project: Folded Wings
Architects: Form4 Architecture
Chief Artistic Officer/Project Designer: John Marx
Principal-in-charge: James Tefend
Designer: Jongho Park
Landscape Architect: Studio Five Design
General Contractor: Truebeck Construction, Inc. 
Client: Sand Hill Property Company
Photographers: John Sutton Photography