Jakob supplies precision made Webnet for Google headquarters

The Google Charleston East Development by BIG Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studios in Mountain View, California follows a modular and scalable building technology. BIG describes the project as grounded in the architecture group’s core principal of bold architecture. It is also supposed to reflect the culture of innovation Google’s mother company Alphabet stands for. The main aims of the project are to foster a sense of community while integrating nature and design a model community for the Silicon Valley.

Jakob Rope Systems’s task is to provide engineering solutions and supply for the Webnet, cables and brackets of the soffit structure, which will consist of a removable net installation. To achieve a bespoke solution, Jakob supplies more than 5.500 square meters of Webnet micro splitted into 650 individual panels with a 1.5 mm cable diameter and a mesh width of 40 millimeters.

‘For the Webnet and the 1.500 stainless steel cables used as guy ropes, we use a parametric approach to determine the pattern of each panel and the length of each cable individually,‘ explains Jakob head engineer Fabian Graber. ‘Jakob is the only supplier in the market who can offer this approach. It allows us to produce customized solutions that fit neatly with the surrounding structure.’

The installation of the Webnet mesh will be done by Southwest Steel, Henderson NV.