Open House Dublin 2017: The Global Stage

Set foot on the global stage by visiting the Dublin headquarters of global organisations Facebook Dublin, LinkedIn EMEA HQ, Google European Headoffice – Dublin, Squarespace and Airbnb!

AIRBNB

Airbnb’s Warehouse on Hanover Quay is a building of architectural and historical interest, previously home to Dublin Trawling Ice & Cold Storage from 1865 to the 1950s and the Raleigh Bicycle Factory from 1954 to 1980. The warehouse was derelict until 2016, until a careful and faithful restoration and renovation was carried out by RKD architects and fitted out by Heneghan Peng. The three stories of the warehouse are designed around a central atrium amphitheatre, which serves as the heart of the building. Meeting rooms that are replicas of listings on the Airbnb platform, with a few iconic Irish inclusions, invite you to travel around the world and across Ireland as you walk through the space. Open Saturday 14 October from 11.00am – 5.00pm and Sunday 15 October from 12.00pm – 5.00pm.

FACEBOOK INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS IN DUBLIN 

Facebook’s International Headquarters in Dublin was designed as offices by Gehry Partners LLP in 2014, the building is part of a larger Daniel Libeskind scheme for the Grand Canal Dock area. Frank Gehry is one of America’s best-known architects, the headquarters follows the spirit of experimentation of Gehry’s previous works. His style disrupts expectations, and he has remained largely unaligned with broader stylistic movements throughout his career. Facebook’s ‘open culture’ policy is facilitated by the creation of spaces for teams to co-operate and innovate. “There are lots of small spaces where people can work together, and it’s easy for people to move around and collaborate with anyone here.” The interiors are functional and minimalist with a bright glass clad exterior. Studio Libeskind also created several soaring glass façades, which surround the public plaza at Grand Canal Dock, which was designed by Martha Schwartz in 2010. Prebook your place on a Saturday 14 October and Sunday 15 October tour today!

GOOGLE GORDON HOUSE

The Gordon House building consists of 13,000 square metres of reception, auditorium, client experience centre, uniquely-designed workspace, meeting and training rooms, micro kitchens and cafe, outdoor terrace – the project embraces Google’s ‘posh garage’ style and has sustainability at its core. At the heart of the scheme sits a sculptural staircase in a redeveloped and extended atrium. Connecting all seven floors of the building, it opens out onto each uniquely designed floor to inspire the Googlers that work there. The scope of the brief was extensive and challenging as the building was taken back to shell and core, The designers HLW worked closely with Google to truly understand how Googlers would use it. External spaces, such as the car park, were converted into internal spaces and the roof and façade were extensively altered to achieve these design aspirations. Places on this tour will be distributed using a lottery, which has now closed, for tours on Sunday 15 October.

SQUARESPACE DUBLIN OFFICE 

MOLA Architecture and American based design firm A+I collaborated on the design of the 2735sqm office located in the heart of the city centre. Squarespace is a website building platform that prides itself on a minimalist aesthetic and simple design. These principles are reflected in the refined colour palate of the fit out. The concept centres on a black core, where all the meeting rooms, pantry, games rooms and collaboration spaces are contained. The white spaces are the open plan work areas. The structure of the building was exposed and painted white with all services located behind acoustic panels to invoke an industrial aesthetic. The only other colour is from natural materials such as walnut joinery or planting. The penthouse floor has a food counter and bar opening out to rooftop terraces with views over the city. This floor also changes to a large All Hands space to allow for large functions and video conferencing between Squarespace’s New York and Portland Offices. Open Sunday 15 October from 12.00pm – 5.00pm.

LINKEDIN EMEA HEADQUARTERS

The LinkedIn Headquarters is the first in the world to be commissioned and owned by LinkedIn, and as such presented an opportunity to create a unique space customised to the needs of the business, the teams who are based here and the clients and markets we serve across the EMEA region. Across six floors the building includes work spaces for more than 1,000 employees, a restaurant quality café, a state of the art gym and fitness studio, bike parking for 250 bikes, electric car charging points, a music room and a rooftop barista with an extensive roof terrace with unique views of the city. As the EMEA HQ, the building’s interior is designed to be truly international, with artwork commissioned by artists from across the region as well as distinctively Irish works, most notably the LinkedIn logo by Áine Dunne, a fine art weaver and a pencil drawing by Monika Mitkute. Places on this tour will be distributed using a lottery, which has now closed, on Saturday 14 October.