A renowned architect has spoken out against the massive tech campuses sprawling throughout Silicon Valley - one of which he designed - characterizing them as "fundamentally unhealthy" and "dangerous."
Luxurious office spaces have become the norm across the tech world and can be seen spread across the South Bay. Instead of traditional offices, tech giants have built colossal campuses over acres of land, complete with a variety of extravagant perks for workers to enjoy including gourmet catered meals, private gardens, volleyball courts, yoga classes and bowling alleys.
In an interview with NPR, Clive Wilkinson, the famed South African architect who designed Googleplex, perhaps the most notorious modern office space in the world, criticized that same type of workplace environment he helped create.
"You don't want an overly comfortable workplace, you shouldn’t have sleep pods everywhere," he told the outlet. "Creative work does not happen in these super over-provided circumstances. Creative work doesn’t happen in a condition of luxury."
He argued that the set-up blurs the lines between work and leisure and keeps the employee tethered to the office.
"Work-life balance cannot be achieved by spending all your life on a work campus," Wilkinson said. "It's not real. It's not really engaging with the world in the way most people do."
In addition, this type of workplace can lead to burnout since employees are always at the office, never having to leave because many of their daily needs are handed to them on-site by the company. Furthermore, workers become isolated from the larger community, and local businesses such as cafes and laundromats suffer as a result.
"I think it's dangerous to have an overt dependency between the worker and the company," he explained.
He added that the situation is "fundamentally unhealthy and a difficult one to pull apart because once you’ve made all those offices to your employees, how do you pull back from that situation?"
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