Description

Electronic Arts is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of interactive entertainment software, so the company is much less interested in a conventional office building than in an “activity-based, team-oriented environment that promotes individual development and growth.”

Its site, on the shore of a lake in an eighteenth century park, does indeed suggest a world of adventure that synthesises work and leisure. A triad of parallel, three-storey office wings opens like fingers spreading wide towards a building-height atrium, which stretches along the curve of the lake, separated from it only by a narrow platform. The atrium is the social focus of the ‘campus.’ It’s entirely glazed and opaque structure has been kept to a minimum. Glass sliding doors three storeys in height enable the atrium to be fully opened onto the lake. The shared facilities are housed in this high-ceilinged open room and on the ground floor of the office wings. Everything – from restaurant, bar, gymnasium, changing rooms for cyclists and joggers, through presentation rooms, sound studios and video game arcade to refrigeration facilities to accommodate the delivery of purchases ordered online – has been provided to encourage staff to feel that they are “homing from work” (as opposed to “working from home”). The organisational structure of the company is based on a so-called producer’s system: a ‘producer’ puts together a team of collaborators to carry out a given task. This way, Electronic Arts attempts to integrate the best freelance experts worldwide for the duration of a project. Management, marketing and sales functions, however, are provided by staff on the permanent payroll.

The design of the climate control system accords with the company’s forward-looking organisational structure. Under normal conditions, natural ventilation in conjunction with nocturnal cooling ensures comfortable room temperatures. A central building management system controls the workplace environment, opening and closing windows and vents automatically and in extreme cases, switching on air conditioning. Heat gain is avoided through the use of brise-soleil systems as part of the façade system. The building has been provided with light management, networking every individual light with a room-to-room presence detector so that only rooms that are being used will be lighted and energy consumption minimised. Team-oriented work is assisted by audio-visual presentation equipment provided throughout the building – one of the largest installations of this kind in Europe – and a portable telephone system by which every employee in the building can be reached.

EA transforms an office building into a spatial experience that integrates significant aspects of social life while nonetheless retaining the category of office building. It offers teams a home for the duration of a project and promotes smooth, creative completion of tasks.

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Originally published in: Rainer Hascher, Simone Jeska, Birgit Klauck, Office Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2002.