Header: SOFTlab, Google
Like fashion, architecture also has its own trends that resurface every now and then, making this a discipline in constant transformation. Halo, located in Mountain View and neighbouring Google’s new headquarters, is inspired by the bucolic pavilions typically found in Romantic English gardens. The designers responsible for Halo, SOFTlab, mastered this bucolic pavilion vision innovatively: the treasure isn’t outside but inside.
“What counts is on the inside”
Halo is located atop a hill and is visible from the street below, appearing just above the tree line like a pavilion with no front or back. When approaching Halo, visitors are presented with a cylindrical form supported by arches of several sizes at the base that allow them to look into the colourful interior of the pavilion.
The exterior is comprised of vertical aluminium tubes that, in their simplicity, almost seem to playfully hide the beauty inside. As visitors cross the arches and look upwards, they find themselves in what looks like the interior of a geode due to the colourful dichroic acrylic that covers the walls.
Changing atmospheres
During the day, the sun shines through the structure and reflects off the colourful acrylics onto visitors and the floor below. The space is filled with warm light in tones of yellow, orange, red, and green, painting visitors in these happy hues. When the sun goes away for the night and the moon dimly illuminates the landscape, the structure uses LED lights installed in the aluminium tubes to bring out more serene tones.
The blues, greens, purples, and reds look like they are flowing through Halo like a breeze, causing the structure to blur and sharpen as if it’s fading in and out of sight behind the aluminium tubes on the outside. Painted in the same tones of blue and green, visitors feel like they are on the inside of a nebula, almost blending with it.
Google, the client, wanted a place where employees and visitors could recalibrate and recharge their imaginations while also having the chance to experience the beautiful magic provided by natural and artificial light. In the end, these colours and animations give visitors the sense that they changed worlds and that everything is new again, a perfect way to promote the innovation Google is known for.