KONE Corporation, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, has won an order to equip Google's new UK headquarters building, KGX1. The 11-story-tall and 312-metre-long ‘landscraper’ will run parallel to the platforms of London's King's Cross railway station in England and will sit at the heart of a campus for 7,000 Google employees.

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“We're very pleased to welcome KONE to the KGX1 family and look forward to working with them to bring our project to life,” said Andrew Martin, Google’s Director of Real Estate and Construction for the EMEA region.

 

KONE will work closely with Google to help create a smart building with efficient people flow. Of the 38 elevators to be delivered, 35 will be KONE MonoSpace® passenger elevators. The deal also includes two KONE TravelMaster™110 escalators. The elevators will utilise the KONE Destination control system to shorten journey times, and KONE E-Link will enable all the vertical transport equipment on the campus to be monitored remotely and in real time.

 

Innovative ‘landscraper’ design

 

“Designing and delivering our people flow solutions for this innovative 'landscraper' in such a busy area of London means a whole new concept of working,” said Thomas Hinnerskov, Executive Vice President, KONE Central and North Europe. “We're thrilled that our innovative people flow solutions, quality and track record helped us win this order,” he added.

 

Designed by Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group with Heatherwick studio, the London headquarters is being developed by Google, with Argent as development manager and is being constructed by Lendlease.