In recent years, mass timber has surged in popularity, combining the unique ability to sequester carbon in a building’s frame with exceptional structural and aesthetic value. For Google’s first mass timber building in Sunnyvale, SWA partnered with a multidisciplinary team to extend these principles into the surrounding landscape, creating a unified identity between architecture and environment that centers ecological stewardship.
Incorporating native coastal species like California live oak, sagebrush, and milkweed, the planting design enhances biodiversity, minimizes water use, and provides a refuge for people and pollinators around the building. Wooden site furnishings establish a cohesive material language on the ground plain, further complementing the building materials. Prioritizing connectivity, the site design features multimodal connections to the wider Sunnyvale transit system, encouraging low-carbon commuting for staff and visitors. Capturing the architecture’s warmth and biophilic qualities, SWA’s landscape is designed to create an interconnected experience for employees that blends the built and natural environment.
Collaborators:
XL Construction
Michael Green Architecture
SERA Architects
Equilibrium Engineering Solutions
Sares Regis Group
Kier+Wright
BOLD
RMA Irrigation
Giant Interactive Headquarters
SWA collaborated with Morphosis Architects on a new ecological park and living laboratory for Giant Interactive Headquarters, a 45-acre corporate campus in Shanghai, China. The design concept blurs the distinction between the ground plane and the structure, weaving water and wetland habitats together with the folded green roof of the main building design. The ...
Symantec Chengdu
SWA provided landscape design for Symantec’s research and development complex. The site was previously inactive and banal until SWA’s design reinvigorated the area, linking the building program and connecting the site to the larger city. The landscape design produces a “brocade,” weaving together the building and site program, and offering an oasis amid the de...
Roche Diagnostics
As the first manufacturing facility in Asia, Roche Diagnostics hopes to set a model for future projects in the region. Located in Suzhou, a city with a strong tradition of gardening, this flagship factory will not only meet Roche’s global standard, but will be infused with the spirit of the city’s gardens, distinguishing it from a stereotypical factory. A clea...
Exxon Corporate Headquarters
Exxon’s Corporate Headquarters is situated on 200 acres of rolling mesquite woodland in Texas’ Las Colinas Development. The design captures the essence of a subtle Texas landscape by careful selection of native plants and preservation of existing woodland and wetland areas. The building itself is surrounded by a more “domestic” landscape within a forest ...