Project Description
The new offices for Ooyala, a leading innovator in premium video publishing, accommodate 200 additional employees for the tech company’s future expansion plans. The office interior includes two open office areas, two circular innovation rooms, more than 50 conference rooms and an all-hands area equipped with a kitchen, espresso cafe, library and employee gym.
HGA transformed the 65,000-square-foot space by challenging the typical tech design aesthetics by using subtle interior design elements. As Ooyala means cradle in Telugu Indian, cradle concepts were incorporated through architectural circles and soft curves, ranging from the lobby’s lighting fixtures to the shape of the collaborative innovation rooms. HGA also integrated minor pops of the company’s signature colors balanced by various shades of gray.
“Our office had to be comfortable for each of our burgeoning departments, as each has its own unique personality–and we wanted to achieve that without overloading our employees with logos and branding everywhere,” said Sally Buchanan, vice president of people at Ooyala. “Our new space accurately reflects who we are and the end result was exactly what we needed as a company.”
To accommodate additional occupants, HGA complied with local occupant-load codes to make sure every person had, at minimum, fifteen square feet of space. After planning with the City of Santa Clara for several months, HGA identified multi-purpose rooms with open office spaces at the perimeters as a solution. This included collaboration rooms with moveable panels in the engineering and marketing departments to allow employees to reconfigure the space as needed. Private, circular rooms were added in the center for more privacy.
Additionally, HGA compiled employee feedback to discover a third challenge: design a space that connects staff from engineering to the marketing and administrative departments with amenities for a “work-play” atmosphere. The result was a 25-foot collaboration tunnel inspired by a camera’s zoom lens to serve as the cornerstone of the design that connects the entire office. Also included was a large, all-hands area for employees to break for lunch, as well as an espresso café and a library–all easily accessible via a scooter or skateboard along stretches of concrete hallways.