Google isn't the only company that knows how to design a cool workspace. From an automaker to a government agency, these organizations have made it their business to build creative offices for employees. Pictured here is an interior view of Frank Gehry's office building on the Novartis Campus in Switzerland.
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Volkswagen Phaeton Plant
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Location: Dresden, Germany
This is not your average car-assembly plant. Also known as the "Transparent Factory," the walls of Volkswagen's Phaeton Plant are made of almost 300,000 square feet of glass. The striking look is completed by Canadian Maple hardwood flooring.
BzzAgent
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Location: Boston
As a word-of-mouth marketing firm, BzzAgent's offices are bound to inspire creativity. To make sure of it, the company began its artist-in-residence program, hiring a professional artist whose work is displayed throughout the building.
Three Rings Design
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Location: San Francisco
These online game developers went for a submarine, steam-punk aesthetic (à la Jules Verne) when they designed their work environment. The office features Victorian-era furniture, a "secret room," and a giant squid tentacle couch in the game area.
Red Bull
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Location: London
Red Bull's headquarters are sleek, smooth and very sci-fi. From giant, round ping pong tables that serve as conference room tables to a slide--yes, slide as in playground--between floors, employees will find it hard to feel boxed in by convention.
Vitra
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Location: Birsfelden, Switzerland
This contemporary furnishings designer employs a "Net 'n' Nest" design philosophy. Open spaces foster teamwork (netting), while strategic placement of furniture and partitions offers quieter working environments as well (nesting).
Pixar
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Location: Emeryville, California
Pixar's lobby, a.k.a. football field-sized atrium, was designed to foster chance encounters. The mailboxes, bathrooms, employee café and common room all open into this space, providing fertile ground for brainstorming big ideas.
Mindlab
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Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
A government job wouldn't be stifling at the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs. The organization's moveable workspaces orbit around "The Mind," essentially a giant, egg-like tank with an interior that functions like a doodle pad.
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