When Confidential Client 01 (CC 01) decided to remodel its multi-structure campus in San Jose, a key requirement was to support the company’s Connected Workplace model. O+A proposed highlighting CC 01’s global reach by giving each building a different regional identity. For Building 18 it was Scandinavia.
When Confidential Client 01 (CC 01) decided to remodel its multi-structure campus in San Jose, a key requirement was to support the company’s Connected Workplace model. O+A proposed highlighting CC 01’s global reach by giving each building a different regional identity. For Building 18 it was Scandinavia.
City San Jose, CA
Year 2015
Size 150,430 sf
Team Denise Cherry, Elizabeth Guerrero, Hilary Hanhan, David Hunter, Chase Lunt, Olivia Ward, Vy Pham, Kelly Waters, Katelyn Nemnich, Sarah Dziuba, Jocelyn Lee, Clem Soga
Photographer Jasper Sanidad
As with other recent projects based on geographic sources, the idea was not to create a literal representation of a place—or even an easily identifiable reference. It was to distill the cultural peculiarities of the region into abstract elements for a modern design.
While the differences between Scandinavian countries may be unclear to those who have never been there, O+A’s designers found subtle distinctions of character that made the four floors of Building 18—each assigned a country—unique.
Using wall graphics as a vehicle for conveying these distinctions, O+A deployed a variety of graphic techniques—watercolor, pixelated photography, patterned wall paper— to capture the starkness of Iceland, the warmth of Denmark, Sweden’s frosty cheerfulness, Finland’s mystical affinity with nature.
The graphics were positioned to rhyme with the activities going on around them—bright colors and intricate patterns near break rooms and areas with social interaction; quieter, more organic abstractions where people would be sitting for long periods. When combined with the project’s structural highlights—cozy wall cubbies, a ribbed staircase with the dappled lure of a white birch forest—the wintry orientation of these spaces came together in a unified expression of Nordic elegance.
