Cloudflare
San Francisco, CA
66,000 SF
Interiors, Experiential Graphic Design
Step into Cloudflare’s reimaged office space where design meets functionality. Immerse yourself in the Wall of Entropy, a stunning fusion of cybersecurity and design inspired by Cloudflare’s iconic lava lamps. Witness the transformation of traditional workspaces into vibrant, choice-based zones.
From dedicated areas for quiet, focused work that allow employees to get away from distractions at home to video conferencing “villages” that provide individuals with single-user booths, ensuring an equitable collaboration experience for those in-office or working remotely. Overall, spaces throughout Cloudflare’s San Francisco headquarters are thoughtfully reinterpreted to improve the workday of each employee.
The concept of entropy is an integral part of Cloudflare’s cybersecurity, and the cryptography taking place within its Wall of Entropy has visually become a part of the company’s identity. Cloudflare uses the randomness of the unpredictable movements within lava lamps to help power its cryptographic algorithms and is the first visual experience as you step into the lobby. By reinterpreting entropy, randomized undulating architecture forms begin to reflect the movement of lava lamps, creating a volume that travels from the entrance into the main office café and leads to the workspaces beyond. This volume becomes a contrasting element within the space, creating dimension with its sweeping curve and protruding forms, providing vibrance yet calm warmth throughout the entire space.
Like many tech firms, Cloudflare was quickly growing within heads-down, desk-after-desk workflow. Their typical office norm was ripe for disruption; and in a hybrid world, the office should suit a variety of needs. To explore this new world, our firm dug into how teams work, the types of space needed, and how we could encourage different modes of thinking. A variety of space types emerged: dedicated quiet focus areas like a multi-purpose library, video villages of single-user booths, and team sprint and work lab areas outfitted with flexible furniture for users to shape their own space. In our exploration, one new precedent was established. To maintain the visual and audio equity experienced during WFH, it was decided that if “one person Zooms in, then all must Zoom in.” All in person or all virtual.
Employees expect more: an office that pushes traditional workplace design boundaries and a comfortable, stylish, and collaborative space that evokes similar feelings to a coffee shop, hotel, and even home. Our workplace designers turned to our award-winning hospitality designers to guide the process and think bigger than an office, more like a boutique hotel. Intriguing forms, textures, layers, and light provide a unique experience as employees or guests move through the four-levels. Locality, or the sense of reflecting the city’s uniqueness into our design, is something we pride ourselves in blending into each hospitality space. Each Cloudflare office design— Austin, London, and San Francisco—tells a different story; each time someone stops at one of the tech company’s offices, they experience something new that reflects the city you’re in.
