Back in 2019, the Holzkurier reported on Google’s ambitious plans to build in wood in the future. At the Mass Timber Conference, Karim Khalifa, Director Building Innovation Sidewalk Labs, and Michelle Kaufmann, Head of Google’s R+D for the Built Environment – both subsidiaries of the Google’s parent holding company Alphabet – talked about the internet giant’s planned mass timber projects. While the presented mega project in the port of Toronto, where a new, smart urban district was to be built in wood on 325 hectares, was cancelled, Kaufmann also mentioned the group’s plans to build ecological and sustainable company buildings in the future.
At the Mass Timber Conference in 2021, Google presented a timber construction pilot project in Sunnyvale, California, which was completed in 2023 and officially inaugurated on November 20, 2024, as paloaltoonline.com reports.
The five-story wooden building has a total floor space of 17,000 m² and is the first office building Google built in wood.
In addition to the ecological way of building and the binding of CO2, Kaufmann also highlights the short construction time and the building’s positive safety properties in the event of an earthquake.
