Google Bolands Mill
A new home for Google's 1,300-strong engineering team at the heart of Dublin's EU headquarters. Boland's site reimagined as a workplace rooted in inclusivity, where Google's presence honors this historic location, and workspace design celebrating the diversity of culture, people, and place.
The brief sought a flexible, community-focused workplace that would support Google's engineering teams and encourage a return to office-based collaboration following the pandemic. Our design process began with research into Google's existing Barrow Street campus, identifying successful spaces and user preferences to inform our response. The brief included a 25,000 ft² gymnasium, extensive amenity provision, and activity-based workspace designed to foster connection and wellbeing.
The design concept draws on Google's multinational workforce, creating a sense of belonging through spatial narrative. Each floor references a different global city, beginning with Dublin and the West of Ireland at reception level, then expanding to international destinations such as Marrakech and Tokyo through material choices and detailing. Shared amenity floors acknowledge Google's Silicon Valley origins, linking the company's Irish presence with its broader identity.
Central to the spatial strategy are new vertical and horizontal connections. Five bespoke staircases and two connecting bridges at levels 4 and 11 allow movement across the building, encouraging informal collaboration and social interaction.
Office floors are configured as activity-based neighbourhoods rather than standardised layouts, with communal zones positioned to promote engagement from arrival onwards.
Curved meeting rooms and embedded quiet zones establish a rhythm between collective and focused work. Material palettes of timber, biophilia, microcement, and textiles create warmth and familiarity, supporting user wellbeing through natural light and sensory variation.
Bolands Towers form part of a wider mixed-use campus at Bolands Mills, which includes the Flour Mills collaboration hub, a community centre, residential apartments, and retail and food offerings, contributing to the ongoing regeneration of this area of Dublin.
