VMware, Bangalore | M Moser | Workplace design

VMware,
Bangalore

VMware needed to bring its 3,000 staff in Bangalore under a single roof. Interactions between the project team, client and staff expanded the brief, revealing needs for multi-sized meeting spaces, informal collaboration zones, a dedicated customer briefing centre and improved lavatory facilities.

Distinctive workplace ‘neighbourhoods’, social-friendly ‘town squares’ and home-away-from-home amenities connect this high-tech HQ to the ideas and activities of its 3,000 staff.

Establishing a city within a building section

Synergy in Connectivity

Multi-layered and diverse, this facility evolved as a unique solution to several corporate, functional and human needs, taking on the complexity and intricacy of a ‘city within a building’.

Like in a city, circulation routes and areas for rest, recreation and interaction serve as the connective tissue between spaces designed for specific teams and purposes. Work areas on each floor coalesce like neighbourhoods around ‘public squares’ of break-out and meeting spaces arrayed around staircases.

Aesthetically Appetising

In keeping with VMware’s culture of innovation, workspaces are open-plan and offer exterior views and natural light to all staff members.

The centrepiece is a spacious canteen featuring an outdoor terrace, ‘fine dining’ and ‘town hall’ seating, two serveries, and a decorative palette blending high-tech contemporary with touches of Indian cultural motifs. Elsewhere, highlights include a sandstone feature wall in the reception and a state-of-the-art briefing centre and boardroom.

As the selected site was under construction when the project began, the team worked with the landlord and the construction contractor to fine-tune the structure. This enabled extra features like internal staircases to be added, and for the technological infrastructure to be optimised for ‘plug-and-play’ flexibility through an integrated approach to project delivery.

A Blend of Local Culture & Sustainable Technology

The building’s unfinished state gave it a margin of flexibility that was also helpful in meeting the project’s sustainability goals. Contributing to its LEED Platinum certification are energy-saving features such as high performance glazing, an advanced heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, occupancy and daylight sensors that maximise lighting efficiency and low-flow fixtures to minimise water wastage. Even the furniture and finishes were selected for low emissions and high recyclability or recycled material.

With its fascinating mix of cutting-edge space, LEED Platinum sustainability, and inspiring hints of Indian art and culture, VMware’s HQ offers a breadth of fluidity and adjustability that enables users to engage and collaborate more closely than ever before.