Amazon Is Building These Huge Greenhouse Spheres To Inspire Its Employees

As a company that’s named after the biggest rainforest in the world, it makes sense that Amazon is now trying to live up to its name.

20 years after revolutionising online shopping and digital services, Amazon’s venturing into a rather new territory. The company is building huge spherical buildings in Seattle, the home to the online retailer, which will house 3000 varieties of tropical and exotic trees and plants within a huge radius of an acre. The spheres will be temperature controlled, acting as giant greenhouses that will double up as employee lounge areas.

As the New York Times describes, “they will act as high-tech greenhouses, the kind of flashy architecture that Amazon shunned for the first 22 years of its life.”

While Amazon is one of the largest companies and employers in the world, unlike its counterparts like Google and Microsoft, Amazon believes in the value of thrift and has largely shied away from swanky offices and crazy perks. The company says that the spheres are being built to serve as a unique piece of architecture in the heart of Seattle, and also to inspire its employees by a burst of nature amidst all the concrete and glass of the city.

Once open in 2018, Amazon’s 20,000+ Seattle employees will get to stroll through tree canopies three stories off the ground, meet with colleagues in rooms with walls made from vines and camp by the indoor creeks. The spheres will be accessible to Amazon employees only, but the company may eventually allow public tours.