©Iwan Baan
Interview Leon Rost Partner, BIG × Kim Bokyoung
Kim Bokyoung (Kim): Google reportedly approached around ten architecture firms for proposals to reimagine its campus and ultimately selected BIG together with Heatherwick Studio. What were Google’s actual requirements for the project at the outset and what was BIG’s initial proposal? And what do you think set it apart from the other competing proposals in a way that appealed to Google?
Leon Rost (Rost): We were asked to provide an 18-minute ‘TED Talk’ video and nothing else. Bjarke and I decided to don a pair of hacked Google Glass glasses, which had just been released, to record a tour of Copenhagen on a bike to visit our buildings while musing about the future of workspace and architecture. No pitch deck, no renderings—just two architects on bikes. I think Google recognised itself in that.
©Iwan Baan
