American chipmaker Nvidia opened its “Voyager” office last year.
The 750,000 square meter space reflects the company’s philosophy of “without barriers or borders.”
Business Insider spoke with the project’s lead architect.
Chipmaker Nvidia has had a few successful years. Demand for the company’s GPU chips skyrocketed as artificial intelligence fever swept the world.
The company was an early adopter of the AI trend and has gained significant leadership in the production of chips used in thriving technologies like ChatGPT. The company’s valuation quickly rose to $1.2 trillion, an increase of nearly 250 percent this year.
One of the keys to Nvidia’s success may lie in its flat organizational structure. “When you move that fast, you want to make sure that information flows through the company as quickly as possible,” CEO Jensen Huang said in a recent interview with Harvard Business Review. Nvidia fully embraced the flat structure and eliminated three or four levels of management to work as efficiently as possible, Huang said. Another key to the “no barriers, no limits” approach, as Huang describes it, is the company office.
The office is named after a Star Trek spaceship.
Opening in early 2022, the headquarters in the city of Santa Clara, California, is an imposing 750,000 square meter building designed to increase employee performance in line with the company’s vision.
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The building, called “Voyager,” was designed by architectural firm Gensler and yes, it is named after a “Star Trek” spaceship.
Hao Ko, the designer behind the project, told Business Insider that the idea of the office is “rooted in the idea that people do their best work when given the choice.”
The office offers employees a variety of spaces tailored to their individual needs, from individual spaces designed for focused work, tutoring or face-to-face meetings.
“A successful workplace should be a goal and not an obligation, so it is also very important to design a comfortable space that reflects the company culture,” says Ko.
Ko said his company’s research showed that collaboration was more effective when teams worked in the same spaces.
“The pandemic has reminded us that work can be done anywhere, but it has also reminded us that bringing people together inspires them to do their best work,” he said.
Previously, Nvidia engineers were housed in traditional workstations, while other teams worked on different floors and even in different buildings. Gensler’s solution was to move all of Nvidia’s equipment into one large room.
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However, the team faced certain problems related to sound and light in such a large open space.
“We designed the roof shape to reflect sound without reverberation and chose the roof material to absorb noise,” explains lead architect Ko.
“It is also a challenge to distribute natural light evenly in a large space so that everyone can enjoy it. “We solved this challenge by adding a variety of skylights to the roof, bringing people closer to the building’s glass façade, and terracing the large floor panels,” he added.
“The true innovation of the Voyager office is that the interiors create the feeling of working outdoors,” explains Ko.
“Inspired by the fact that Santa Clara has arguably one of the best climates in the world and that our backyards are an extension of our home life, Nvidia challenged our team to create a workplace that harnesses the beauty and inspiration of the surrounding nature and allows people to work outdoors all day,” he said.
The “four-acre workspace” features parks and “treehouses” for meetings, while trellises with solar panels providing shade blend into the building structure.
The company also uses geographic nicknames to describe different areas of the building. The “mountain” staircase leads to upper floors with laboratory spaces, while along the perimeter of the building are “valleys”, naturally lit corridors that provide intimate meeting rooms and dining areas.
Ko said future workspaces will place more emphasis on giving people the freedom to choose where they work and work towards healthier and more comfortable environments.
“By refining workplace design based on how people use it, we will continue to drive greater innovation and a more resilient future,” he believes.
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