A Tower for Innovation

Innovative ideas, products, and services do not merely emanate from the algorithms of artificial intelligence or the sterile confines of executive boardrooms. Innovation lies in serendipity. In this impromptu, even accidental zone, the sparks of progress occur, leading to valuable discoveries and synergies between disparate perspectives, ideas, and data. Serendipity, however, is not just luck; it can be cultivated.

After contributing key innovation to chance encounters, companies such as Apple, Pixar, and Google have integrated opportunities for 'bisociation'—the connection of previously unrelated information—into their office architecture. For example, Steve Jobs encouraged engineers and designers to rub shoulders by eschewing separate divisions, and Google credits inventions such as Gmail and Street View to chance encounters. This approach, reminiscent of the traditional 'water cooler' moments, fosters serendipitous interactions and sparks creativity among employees. This is just one type of communication that intelligent design can orchestrate, and the post-pandemic acceleration of hybrid working styles has made employers reconsider its benefits.

Well before the pandemic, LAVA used design to drive better team communications. The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) is Saudi Arabia’s national science agency—a large and complex organization of 2,000 people working across diverse research areas, including nanotechnology, astronomy, agriculture, and the environment. Seeking to enable cross-pollination between these teams for innovation and provide a new organizational structure to augment their work processes, LAVA designed a new 17-story headquarters for KACST around a set of atria that seeks to provide opportunities for informal communication between colleagues and science workers from across the campus.

“A common issue in large institutions is the lack of interaction among employees from different departments due to their spatial organization,” says LAVA Partner Alexander Rieck. “Technology can mitigate this with virtual presentation and discussion tools, but face-to-face meetings and informal gatherings often yield more valuable interactions. Serendipitous moments can occur by designing architecture that offers glimpses into each other’s workspaces and opportunities for chance encounters.”

Drawing from Saudi Arabia’s tribal heritage, LAVA, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute, conceptualized a repeatable meeting unit, or 'voxel,' inspired by the architectural tradition of courtyard houses, known as 'riads.' These inward-facing residences, characterized by few windows to combat intense heat and a central shaded courtyard for gatherings, served as the blueprint. Rieck elaborates, “This form of meeting space resonates deeply in the Arab world, where, historically, discussions often unfolded in communal settings with around 30 individuals seated on low sofas or carpets, be it in marketplaces or courtyard dwellings. While verbal communication is integral to both cultural life and work culture, previous regional office designs often overlooked its significance. We aimed to replicate this openness within a work environment, which is an entirely new proposition for the region.”

Translating this traditional ethos into a contemporary, large-scale structure, the voxels were arranged in stacks of five and rotated to fill the tower envelope, creating multi-level environments. This departs from the conventional approach of a single central atrium and hierarchical layout in tall office buildings. Rieck remarks, “We tasked our structural engineers to realign and redistribute forces to create this intricate geometry of stacked atria, offering boundless possibilities while serving as sunshades and diffusing light across all levels.” This construction supported the low-energy design adapted to the local climate. Shaded façades facing east and west were used for shafts and elevators to minimize solar gain, while atria were alternately oriented toward the south and north, providing skyline views of Riyadh.

Rather than creating homogenous spaces, the resulting massing provides various qualities on each level, fuelling unique approaches to creativity and productivity. Maintaining a constant connection to the atria for enhanced transparency, the floorplates remain adaptable with modular furniture, facilitating seamless adjustments to various work scenarios and densities. “While bountiful interaction defines our architectural decision-making, the layout also provides zones for private retreat and contemplation,” elaborates Rieck.

Stepping out onto the balconies, workers will experience a planted vertical landscape filled with daily activity, where open staircases are woven with social piazzas that facilitate communication and promote creativity supported through climatic, acoustic, and material treatment. The façade pattern of windows and fiber-reinforced concrete elements coordinates with the atria, where glass balustrades, full-storey glass walls, and interior glass partitions reduce solar gain and manage light to the interior spaces. Orienting the whole campus, these atria are gateways to shared facilities such as prayer rooms, a restaurant, and exhibition space. LAVA has used this concept of an atrium layered with functions and experiences at workspace projects such as Nalepaland where a vertical courtyard provides a stage for entrepreneurs, events, and business synergy.

With workplace trends moving towards increasingly digital communications and remote work—let alone virtual reality offices in the metaverse, AI, and hologram technology—predictions show that future workers will primarily be missing out on the benefits of casual in-person collisions. The challenge here is for workplaces to better cultivate the promise of the rewarding interchange between individual human perspectives through design, therefore offering an experience that the digital cannot and incentivizing workers to keep returning. “This building reflects a new paradigm,” concludes Rieck, “as a culturally-specific workplace equipped for the accelerating demands of the post-digital and post-pandemic era.”

Our book What If (2022, Birkhäuser) features this project.