Studio O+A has designed the new Data Visionary Center and Training Facility for NetApp, a hybrid cloud data services and data management company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The new space invites visitors to move sequentially through NetApp's culture in spaces curated for continuity and connection. The result is museum-like, but warmer. The center truly offers experience, leading NetApp's guests through interactive exhibits and functioning workstations.
One of the design's most striking features is the circular cloud that greets new arrivals in the lobby. This enclosure, echoing classic performance structure that dates back to the ancient Greeks, is clad in LED panels on which images and data may be projected. Inside customer stories unfold on digital screens that surround the viewer in a fully immersive experience. But it's a feature of NetApp's customer-friendly design that the tech magic here is flanked by practical nomad's-rest features - a place to stash luggage for guests coming directly from the airport, a café in which to grab a quick breakfast before touring the center.
Product demonstration kiosks allow users to drive their own data management trials-at their own pace and according to their priorities. VR pods invite guests to experience state-of-the-art visualizations, but in comfort and without the futuristic trappings of sci-fi.
Photography: Garrett Rowland