Google installation 'The Orb' offers space to contemplate and communicate
Google's mesmerising installation 'The Orb' encourages engagement for both the public and employees, offering a welcomed moment of distraction

The Orb, a new pavilion in Google’s Charleston East Campus, mesmerises and captivates. The installation, conceived as an ‘anchoring artwork’ for the tech giant, began life as an international, open competition for architects and artists organised by Burning Man on behalf of Google. The result, selected out of 45 semi-finalist proposals during a six-month process including a public vote, is set at the entrance of the company’s Mountain View, California complex. Designed by New York computational design experts The Very Many, led by founder and architect Marc Fournes, it elegantly marks the point where public and private space intersect.
'The Orb', Google HQ pavilion by The Very Many, USA
Standing tall and dramatic in its twisting, organic shapes that span 10m in height, the piece is made out of an ultra-thin, self-supported, aluminium shell structure in a crisp white hue. Its folds and myriad of tiny perforations create an intricate play of light and shadow. The ‘puzzle structure’s’ slender pieces were laser cut and powder coated in Europe and shipped to California during the pandemic – a logistical challenge in itself, Fournes points out.
Sat comfortably in the open plaza, the structure is meant as a moment of ‘productive distraction.’ ‘Underneath the airy and acrobatic minimal surface of The Orb, we carve out a moment of shade, where you can slow down even as you remain connected. Inside, the riveted surface and non-linear environment beckons attention and distracts you from your devices,’ the architect explained. ‘We call it “visual wandering” -- the journey your eye takes to understand an unfamiliar space. It’s our meditative challenge to the viewer, to figure out how it comes together, to see the continuities across parts, and to discover new details while finding unique perspectives each time you return.’
The newly unveiled commission was awarded to The Very Many in 2018. It makes the most of Fournes’ extensive experience in computational design, honed at architecture practices such as SOM, Ross Lovegrove and Zaha Hadid Architects, which blurs the boundaries between art and architecture.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Kitchen Trends 2026: luminosity, colour, and unexpected materiality
These are kitchen trends shaping interior design in 2026, from collaborative kitchens to warm luminosity
-
A gallery in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales showcases work inspired by nature
Thorns Gallery opens in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, with founders Jonathan Reed and Graeme Black aiming to showcase artworks inspired by the natural world
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Discover this sleek-but-warm sanctuary in the heart of the Wyoming wilds
This glorious wood-and-stone residence never misses a chance to show off the stirring landscape it calls home
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heart
A holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
Peel back this Michigan lakeside house’s cool slate exterior to reveal a warm wooden home
In Detroit, Michigan, this lakeside house, a Y-shaped home by Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects, creates a soft balance between darkness and light through its minimalist materiality
-
Inside the new theatre at Jacob’s Pillow and its ‘magic box’, part of a pioneering complex designed for dance
Jacob’s Pillow welcomes the reborn Doris Duke Theatre by Mecanoo, a new space that has just opened in the beloved Berkshires cultural hub for the summer season
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners’ passions
Architect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts, have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic midcentury modern works; they invited us on a tour
-
Inside a midcentury modern house so good, its architect didn’t want to mess with it
‘I was immediately a little bit frightened, because it was such a great house,’ says architect Casper Mork-Ulnes of Roger Lee-designed gem in Berkeley, California
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered