{"id":17179,"date":"2024-04-23T07:58:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T21:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=17179"},"modified":"2024-10-21T20:19:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T10:19:34","slug":"microsofts-leap-rares-timber-hq-an-xbox-first-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/microsofts-leap-rares-timber-hq-an-xbox-first-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft’s Leap: Rare’s Mass Timber HQ, an Xbox First in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the world’s largest game developers, Rare, has opened its new mass timber headquarters in Leicestershire, UK – with the new build storing enough electricity to power 438,000 Xbox consoles.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project, known as Barn-X, has been four years in the making – starting off as a COVID-19 project when the future of work was unpredictable. Fast-forward to April 22, World Earth Day, and the LEED-Gold project is now part of a push by Xbox and its parent company, Microsoft, to build mass timber buildings across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We asked ourselves, ‘What might the gaming studio of the future look like?'” says Craig Duncan, Rare’s head of studio. The result is a close collaboration between Rare, the Microsoft real estate team, London-based architect LOM<\/a>, and Dublin sustainability design advisors RKD<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our new barn demonstrates leading-edge sustainability and environmental design, creating a model green workplace,” Mr Duncan said, adding that “the new space design promotes collaboration, creativity, and wellbeing, which are essential ingredients for a team to create achieving experiences for players everywhere.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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