NVIDIA Campus

Within a four acre open space between two new buildings at the Santa Clara NVIDIA campus, Hood Design Studio has created a fully usable space with distinct elements to facilitate the daily practice of work.

Throughout the robust design process, HDS focused on creating a truly Californian landscape. The design integrates the agricultural legacy of the region, resulting in a landscape composed of multiple layers that echo the feel of this pastoral zone throughout the dedicated outside working spaces. The relationship between the inside and the outside, the individual and collaboration, and the built environment and landscapes are also investigated within the design. The space initiates a distinct dialogue with the buildings, and establishes an eclectic plant palette that responds authentically to a new microclimate. Ultimately, the design’s rolling landform synthesizes two individual spaces into a fluid yet dynamic whole.

The design moves away a traditional ornamental focus. Instead, the space is a hardscape with architectural elements, making use of two treelike structures that form defined break-out spaces under their canopy, and are veiled in sky-facing photovoltaic panels. A mix of over 60,000 varieties of native and harmonious non-native plants and 400 trees rest below the trellis structures, specifically chosen to withstand varying levels of both the sun and the local water supply and its irrigation system. The span of the landscape is framed by a corrugated perimeter, elongating the site’s landscaped edges.

A unique concept in the NVIDIA design is that of a two-level landscape: first, the ground-level design, and a second elevated landscape which intervenes with the trellis structure and the bridge. The trellis interacts opens up and out, like a tree, reaching across the two buildings allowing a reciprocal motion and flow between them.

Sitting beneath the trellis apexes are two tree-house structures, or nests, inviting people outside to pause within the space between the buildings, for collaboration and rest alike. These granular pods provide spaces that can be subdivided into diverse outdoor work areas accommodating groups from two to fourteen people. The trellis canopy above shields inhabitants from the elements while simultaneously allowing plants beneath to receive sunlight needed to flourish.

As an adaptive landform, both sides utilize custom-designed materials that react to sun and shade. These give a deceptively simple and elegant palette on the ground plane, such as concrete or cobblestone, which then evolve into tactile surface objects of wood. Large stone benches run in and out of sunlit and shady spots, affording versatility so the space may be enjoyed in its various states. The neutral hues of grey and tan throughout these areas meet at the rolling landform at the center of the campus.

On the ground, concrete patterning identifies different pedestrian paths and aid in wayfinding. Diamond-shaped formations flow and intersect at building egress points, guiding visitors outside and back into the buildings. These pathways connect to the corrugated edge that snakes back and forth, mirroring contours of a natural hill.

A variety of tree species stand precisely along the grid lines of the concrete-patterned ground, while simultaneously creating natural and organic shapes. The low-branching red oaks and cultivars native to this region were chosen to respond directly to the architectural microclimate created by the new campus buildings, providing a treed landform at eye level.

Hood Design Studio’s intent in this design was to encourage work outdoors in a landscape faithful to its regional character. This was achieved with a delicate balance between the geometry of gridlines and hard-form structures and the organic ebb and flow in landforms and flora.