There's lots of perks at Google HQ out in California, but the design itself is a snooze. Things are a lot more interesting at their just-completed engineering offices in Zurich, Switzerland.

The common spaces are particularly zany, and they play off of lots of tropes of Swiss culture. Above: Meeting rooms in the form of ski-lift gondolas.

The library, meanwhile, is very ski lodgey:

The designers, Carmenzind Evolution (who also recently designed an office we just featured) say they undertook an rigorous study of "personality types, representational systems, values and motivational factors." Which I guess is Swiss for, "We tried to think of fun ways to monkey around." The profusion of common areas--from a library to a games room--is meant to tap research (which we've noted here and here) showing that relaxation and water-cooler time is crucial in the innovation process.

Swank as these offices are, they're still not even close to Facebook's.

[For more pics, check out World Architecture News]