That really IS a tech bubble: Google reveals plan for radical transparent 'tented city' to take on Apple's spaceship campus

Large translucent canopies will cover each site, controlling the climate inside yet letting in light and air

Interiors will include running and cycling tracks, and office that can be easily moved and reconfigured

Facebook's new office, designed by Frank Gehry, is designed to replicate a college campus and will feature the largest open floor plan in the world for 3,400 engineers

Apple's 'spaceship' campus in Cupertino has a unique circular design masterminded by British architect Norman Foster

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com


Google has revealed its plans for a 'bubble' office in California to house its ever expanding empire.

The new headquarters — a series of 'canopylike buildings' from Heatherwick Studio, a London design firm known for works like the fiery cauldron at the 2012 Olympics, and Bjarke Ingels, a Danish architect known for his innovative designs.

The new office will consist of four giant transparent 'bubbles' in Mountain view, close the the firm's current 'Googleplex'.

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Large translucent canopies will cover each site, controlling the climate inside yet letting in light and air.

Inside the domes will be office spaces Google says can be easily reconfigured for different teams.

'We have an opportunity to build new buildings, which is nothing unique, said David Radcliffe of Google.

'But we've tried to take a step back to make it blend with nature.'

'Today we're submitting a plan to redevelop four sites—places where we already have offices but hope to significantly increase our square footage—to the Mountain View City Council,' Google said.

'With trees, landscaping, cafes, and bike paths weaving through these structures, we aim to blur the distinction between our buildings and nature.'

The firm also hopes to ease fears from the local community it it taking over,.

'Of course, this project is about much more than just office space; it's about doing more with the local community as well.

'So we're adding lots of bike paths and retail opportunities, like restaurants, for local businesses.

'We also hope to bring new life to the unique local environment, from enhancing burrowing owl habitats to widening creek beds.'

Inside the domes will be office spaces Google says can be easily reconfigured for different teams.

'The idea is simple.

'Instead of constructing immoveable concrete buildings, we'll create lightweight block-like structures which can be moved around easily as we invest in new product areas. (Our self-driving car team, for example, has very different needs when it comes to office space from our Search engineers.)'

The best way to describe it is as a tent-like structure, with a tremendous amount of glass,' said City Councilman Ken Rosenberg.

'The most impressive design feature is how it brings in the outside world.'

The renders of the building reveal vast indoor atriums complete with running and cycle tracks, restaurants and open spaces, amny of which Google says will be open to the public.

The domes will appear almost completely translucent from the outside, the the covering controlling the climate inside yet letting in light and air

The complex has been designed to fit in with nature, Google said

It is the firm's second attempt at a new office, after plans for a Bay View 'mini city' were put on hold last year.

It would have meant a 1.1 million square foot Googleplex with nine rectangular buildings, horizontally bent, with living roofs surrounded by courtyards and connected by bridges.

No employee will be more than a two-and-a-half-minute walk away from any colleague, a design aimed at encouraging collaboration.

Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon have chosen very different approaches - from Facebook's plan for the world's biggest open plan office to Amazon's Biodomes with their own ecosystem.

Facebook's West Campus to be built in Menlo Park by 2016 and designed by Frank Gehry . It will feature the world's biggest open plan office, with 3,400 Engineers sitting together - and is designed to replicate a college campus

Amazon's plans for a biosphere office resembles a greenhouse or conservatory. The three intersecting domes replace an earlier plan for a six-story office building. It will be full of plants and will be built over five floors

This incredible new image shows what Apple's new HQ in Cupertino, California, will look like when completed in 2016

Google plan for a 1.1 million square foot Googleplex. Called Bay View, it will have nine rectangular buildings, horizontally bent, with living roofs surrounded by courtyards and connected by bridges. No employee will be more than a two-and-a-half-minute walk away from any colleague, a design aimed at encouraging collaboration.

Experts say the buildings are the latest round in the hi-tech war - but may not be a good sign.

'It signals a desire, a statement, to say that we're special, we're different,' said Margaret O'Mara, associate professor of history at the University of Washington, who has written about the building of Silicon Valley.

'We have changed the world and we are going to continue to change it - and it's also a reflection of robust bank accounts, they have a lot of cash.'

However, some believe the vast offices could spell the beginning of the end, and many believe the obsession with new premises often comes at a high point in the firm's existence.

'I've been thinking the Apple spaceship is going to get nicknamed the 'Death Star' because the project is so big and the timing is so bad,' said hedge fund manager Jeff Matthews of Ram Partners.

The building is coming to fruition just as Apple's product cycles may be maturing, he explained.

'It is such a classic contrary indicator that you just get the shakes',' he told Reuters.

Walter Price, who runs technology investment funds at RCM Capital Management, shares the outlook.

'When companies build big headquarters it's usually when they're doing really well and have strong outlooks, and that often coincides with a peak in their stock,' he said.

Early plans show the Facebook team will congregate in a massive open room. The building will be topped with trees and will be connected to the company's main offices by an underground tunnel.

Architect Frank Gehry (left), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (center) and Craig Webb (right), from Gehry's office, share a laugh as they discuss plans for an addition to the Facebook campus

Mark Zuckerberg has enlisted architect Frank Gehry to expand Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, near Palo Alto, California.

Gehry has been charged with creating a space for 3,400 Facebook engineers to work on developing the new, new thing for the social networking site now struggling to prove its dominance in the market.

Early plans show the company's team of techies will congregate in a massive open room, which will be the largest open office space in the world, in keeping with Zuckerberg's mission to make the 'world a more open place.'

The building will be topped with trees and will be connected to the company's main offices by an underground tunnel.

Construction is expected to begin in 2013.

'I'm excited to work with Frank Gehry to design our new campus,' said Zuckerberg.

'The idea is to make the perfect engineering space: one giant room that fits thousands of people, all close enough to collaborate together.'

'It will be the largest open floor plan in the world, but it will also have plenty of private, quiet spaces as well.

The roof of the building will be a park that blends into the community with a long walking trail, a field and lots of places to sit.

'From the outside it will appear as if you're looking at a hill in nature.'

Google is also set to dramatically re-imagine it's fame 'Googleplex'.

Amazon's domes will be built in the shadow of a skyscraper that the online retailer is also planning to build. Both the skyscraper and the domes will sit between 6th and 7th Avenue in Seattle

Amazon is the most recent to reveal its plans.

It plans to build a trio of 65,000-square foot glass domes in Seattle as parts of its new headquarters to take on Apple's plans for 'spaceship' headquarters in Silicon Valley, San Francisco.

The domes will be filled with plants and have been dubbed 'biospheres'.

All the plants will be chosen specifically to survive in the microclimate of the domes that has also been designed to be comfortable for Amazon employees to work in.

The proposals were submitted earlier this week at Seattle City Hall's Design Review Board and explain that the domes will have botanical zones arranged around office areas, a canteen and lounge.

The plans explain that the domes will be ' a plant-rich environment that has many positive qualities that are not often found in a typical office setting.'

Architects NBBJ have designed the buildings and its ecosytem.

To achieve this Amazon will be creating the zones based on findings from studies that look into how plants and organisms live in mountain ranges around the world .

The domes and office space will be spread over five floors with shops and a kitchen on the ground floor, more shops on the first floor and office space on levels two to five.

Amazon has also previously submitted plans to build a skyscraper on the same location in Seattle between 6th and 7th Avenue.

The proposals do not say when the buildings will be completed and the completion date is expected to be announced once the plans have been reviewed.

Models and a proposal of the plan have been submitted to Seattle City Hall's Design Review Board earlier this week for review. The domes will take up 65,000 square foot. The first two floors will be shops. The top three floors will have office space, canteen and lounges all surrounded by plants

The first floor of the dome structure will have a kitchen, lobby and shops. The first floor will have more shops and then Amazon employees will work on floors two, three, four and five. Amazon proposes to place plants throughout the domes that can survive in the microclimate while still being comfortable for the employees

Plans for Apple's 'spaceship' headquarters were first submitted to planning officers in August 2011.

It was billed as 'the best office building in the world' but this title could now be under threat from Amazon's glass domes.

These incredible images show exactly what the firm's new Apple Campus 2, in Cupertino, California, will look like when completed in 2016.

Last month Apple submitted new plans with updated landscaping plans, a slightly revised floor plan, renderings, and a bicycle plan, however the main design hasn't changed.

Appearing as a giant saucer, amidst a dense jungle of trees, the 175-acre Silicon Valley site near the 280 Highway will house 13,000 staff.

Dubbed 'The Spaceship' because of its 360-degree curved glass fronted walls and central courtyard, it will also contain a 1,000 seat auditorium, a gym and 300,000 square feet of 'research' space.

The 2.8 million square foot HQ will have underground parking, so that 80 per cent of the site can be covered in trees - and clean energy sources, primarily natural gas, will provide its power. The local energy grid will only be accessed in emergencies.

Workers strolling around its exterior may think they are in the middle of the countryside, and not in the middle of a bustling city

In 2011 Steve Jobs said his firm was 'growing like a weed' and that it had 'a shot at building the best office building in the world'.The company's current Cupertino office, called 1 Infinite Loop and which will still be used by the firm, can only fit around 2,600 people. Apple has had to rent buildings to house its other 10,000 employees.

Concept images released in April, as well as images originally submitted in 2011 by Cupertino City Council show workers strolling outside the building.

The design is meant to make them feel like they are in open countryside.

But by looking at the overhead impression, below, it is clear they will, in fact, be in the middle of a bustling city.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented the plans for the spectacular circular-shaped HQ, on former Hewlett-Packard property, to Cupertino City Council in June 2011.

He said his firm was 'growing like a weed' and added: 'We do have a shot at building the best office building in the world. I really do think architecture students will come here to see this.'

Workers may think they are in a rural paradise, but from this aerial image it is clear they are in the middle of a city

These images were released by Cupertino City Council in 2011, which is in favour of the development. Apple submitted updated plans in April this year that included tweaked floor plans, renderings and a bicycle plan. More than 80 per cent of the office will be surrounded by trees - similar to Amazon's plans to fill its biospheres with plants

The new site has been dubbed 'The Spaceship'. Its internal layout is similar to the Pentagons with toilets and kitchens situated at set points throughout the circular design

The company's current Cupertino office, called 1 Infinite Loop and which will still be used by the firm, can only fit around 2,600 people. This has seen Apple renting buildings to house its other 9,000 employees.

During a 20-minute presentation on the new project in 2011, Steve Jobs said: 'It's a pretty amazing building. It's a little like a spaceship landed. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building.'

Architects Foster and Partners are working with ARUP North America and Kier & Wright engineers on the scheme.

Watch Steve Jobs's presentation to Cupertino City Council in June: