Going the GOOGLE way!

For Google to be the PERFECT search engine, means having to understand exactly what we MEAN and give back exactly what we WANT!

Imagine the joy of being the opportunity to comprehend what THEY mean and in turn create what THEY want! Yes! That is exactly what happened on a fine June morning this year. A Courier addressed to the Design department in my office, with a specific mention of “Interior Designer/ Quantity Surveyor” comes our way. Since I am the one who fits the above bill perfectly, the Package was delivered to my desk. Being the excited person that I am, I cheekily sidelined everything else that I was working on and excitedly opened up the packet ( or ripped apart in my colleague, Shaji’s words), with the happiness one sees on a 5 year old‘s face opening her Christmas gift! And was I disappointed?? Nope absolutely not!!

The Packet gave way to yet another packet marked GOOGLE! Imagine my shock, excitement and astonishment? Immediately I said to myself NO WAY are we going to get it! But the next minute I thought, to even be able to bid for the Project is a great honour in itself, right? Of course it is!

But everyone here at my office thought otherwise, they thought it was an absolute waste of time to invest our time, energy and money into something that won’t materialise the WAY we wanted it to. Why would they give it to our company they quizzed? But I, and proud to say that with my determination and backing from a few dependable colleagues, we are able to bid for the project and what do you know? We WON the Project!! :D :D

From then on started a wonderful journey involving a multitude of effects like chaos, high energy, long hours of work, sweat, tension, migraines, acidity, high stress levels and weight loss.

In order to effectively understand the Google way of working and designing the office space, there were a few things that Me and My boss had mutually agreed on that Its best to do one thing really, really well and therefore I was asked to concentrate completely on Google’s New office in Dubai and nothing else till the project is handed over and I was definitely not complaining!

Google’s head honchos as well their Middle East partners had a fairly distinct idea of what exactly they wanted in their new Office. The Office, we decided, would reflect an obvious Middle Eastern feel, along with a very modern interpretation given to the whole space, not forgetting the free, colourful, transparent feel to the entire space. We decided to Focus on the user and all else will follow. And that is exactly what happened.



Entrance Foyer



Reception Counter





The Entrance to any office sets the whole image of the entire setting. The Reception was designed to have a strong Arabic feel offset with an abstract colourful analysis. The Reception Counter was designed in the shape of a Traditional Arabic dhow, leading to the Counter is a strong feature wall, with Limestone cladding in a random English brick pattern, right beside the Counter, is a silhouette of the complete Dubai skyline featuring most of the Iconic building. In the waiting area, to add colour, we incorporated a bespoke curvilinear sofa in Bright Read and pouffe in Bright Yellow to match. Carpet tiles in golden brown and dark brown were laid in curvilinear patterns to reflect the sand dunes in the entire office. To complete the Reception Area, we added a Foosball table and a Floor to Wall Wooden Mashribiya to match the Reception counter.



Floor to Wall Mashribya Screens

Foos Ball Table



BreakOut Area

A Breakout Area, with provisions to play PS3, musical instruments like the drums and guitar was created in the form of upholstered tiers at varying heights. This area was to have the feel of a Beach, with live beach scene lurking in the background, the sounds of the sea fed into the music systems, a couple of beach chairs thrown into the mixture and viola, we have Google’s Breakout Area.




Breakout Area

 All the meeting rooms have been created with the aim of inciting the employees to work hard and play harder and therefore perform better. One of the Meeting Room has a detailed Feature wall, incorporating the Camel Racing theme.



Meeting Room 1 - Camel Racing Theme

Another Meeting room is completely in the Arabic Majlis theme, this to prove that you don’t necessarily need to be at your desk to need an answer or find a solution! The complete room, in a rich Maroon and gold, with bright Moroccan lighting adding to the flavour of the space, in order to stop the space from becoming completely Arabic, three pop art images were hung high on the wall.



Majlis Meeting Room



Majlis Room

Yet another one has a Shining glowing wall, A wall made with a mixture of Wooden Mashribiya and Acrylic sheets and dim lighting coming through creating an illusion of added space in the otherwise constrained Room.



Glowing Wall

A Central Informal Meeting Room was created in the shape of a Pearl, Yes a Pearl, to symbolise Dubai being the Pearl of the Middle Eastern Desert! Made in Pure Corian finish, with upholstered seating fixed inside, and in order to provide additional acoustic insulation and add to the aesthetic nature of the Pearl, a fabric canopy was created from the Ghutra, the traditional fabric used by the Arabs to cover their head.

Yet another novel feature was the presence of the Phone Booths, Two Phone Booths placed beside each other to house employees who need to make important telephone conversations with their foreign counterparts. The Phone Booth is a cosy room, filled with juxtaposed images of Telephones of different kinds being pasted all over the four walls. The Front facia is covered with an abstract disproportionate interpretation of the Burj Al Arab and the Emirates Towers.



Phone Booths



Overall View of the Office Space

Visualizing such an Office and seeing it being built up in front of you just like the way you imagined, is believe me the most satiating experiences ever. It also does one more thing; It makes you wish you were working for Google!! They have everything a person needs in there and even more. They have massage chairs, foosball tables, PSP3, unlimited food, drink and other games, private funky cabins and much more.

Everyone is Proud of my “Achievement”, everyone here at my Office, My Professors, My friends and I am sure even my parents even though they haven’t been very vocal about it! But the question is; Is it the Best I can do? Nah…. Being Great just isn’t good enough, is it?! LOL! No it definitely isn’t! Fingers crossed and waiting with great expectations for the Next exciting Project to get COURIED to me...

I remain,

In Anticipation!

Oh… Btw you may ask me ‘What Did you learn from your brief stint at GOOGLE??”….Well… uhmm, You DONT need to be in a SUIT to be taken seriously!!!