Duracell Headquarters – Atlanta
Perkins&Will designed Duracell’s Global Research & Development Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, creating a workplace that combines advanced laboratories and testing environments with open collaborative areas, a signature stair, and subtle battery-inspired brand references.
Duracell’s new Global Research & Development Headquarters at Science Square represents a major investment in the future of battery innovation. Occupying approximately 83,000 square feet across four floors, the facility brings together advanced laboratories, testing environments, and collaborative workplace settings within one of Atlanta’s emerging innovation districts. The project establishes Atlanta as the home of Duracell’s global R&D operations while creating a new model for how research, workplace culture, and brand identity can coexist within a highly specialized environment.
What began as a laboratory fit-out evolved into a transformative reimagining of Duracell’s research environment, workplace experience, and brand expression. Through a multi-year planning process, the design team helped navigate the transition from a Duracell-owned building in the middle of a suburban park to a lease in an urban high-rise building. The resulting workplace seamlessly integrates highly technical laboratory spaces with open, connected environments that support collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation.
A defining element of the project is its approach to brand experience. Rather than relying on overt logos or graphics, the design draws inspiration from one of Duracell’s most recognizable innovations: the battery itself. A battery represents protection, resilience, intelligence, and stored potential, with an outer shell that safeguards what lies within. This philosophy shaped the workplace environment, creating a subtle yet meaningful expression of the brand throughout the space. The signature stair connecting the research floors serves as both a symbolic and physical centerpiece, portraying a battery that links researchers across levels while encouraging movement, interaction, and the exchange of ideas.
The project also establishes a new benchmark for Duracell’s future workplaces and laboratories. Although the Science Square facility was designed to accommodate life science laboratories, Duracell’s equipment and programming required calculated fine-tuning, resulting in configurations that far exceeded the initial parameters on all levels, including structural, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. To accomplish this, the team thoroughly mapped how batteries move through development, testing, and validation, seeking to understand how researchers interact with equipment, laboratories, and co-collaborators throughout the day. This evidence-based approach ensured Duracell would maximize its real estate by establishing a layout with more intentional, efficient workflows. While highly specialized, the facility was designed for long-term adaptability. Raised access flooring allows for the reconfiguration of workstations, laboratory equipment, and critical infrastructure as research needs evolve, providing flexibility without disruptive renovations.
Supporting collaboration and employee wellbeing were equally important to the design vision. Open, connected workplace environments are seamlessly integrated with highly specialized laboratory settings, giving researchers the freedom to move quickly between spaces while maintaining the operational rigor essential to scientific work. Access to outdoor amenities, including the adjacent green roof and terrace environments, biophilic elements, comfortable collaboration spaces, and hospitality-inspired gathering areas, together contribute to an office experience focused on employee wellbeing. The result is a new model for a research workspace that supports innovation, reinforces brand identity, prioritizes safety and quality, and creates a healthier, more engaging environment for the people driving scientific discovery.
Design: Perkins&Will
Photography: Garey Gomez
