A sneak peek of one of the areas Google employees will enjoy at its new cybersecurity centre in Malaga

Not one detail has been left to chance in what will be Google's headquarters in Malaga. The bathroom tiles, the names of the meeting rooms, the colours of the wall coverings... everything is carefully chosen and everything has a reason. The interior of the tech giant's new Safety Engineering Center (GSEC) is jealously guarded so that no details are revealed until the inauguration, which is expected to be before the end of the year.

What cannot be hidden, however, is the roof terrace and it is not exactly discreet, as can be seen in the photographs. A striking design has been revealed a colourfully designed terrace with spectacular views of the city's port and the Bay of Malaga. It was revealed an image released by Malaga artist Victor Garcia, who was chosen to design a mural on the building's terrace. Garcia's geometric mural design is a play on Google's famously colourful logo, and is made from painted wooden slats.

Bernardo Quintero, a security engineering director at Google and founder of VirusTotal, said the stunning views of the city's port were one of the main reasons for convincing the multinational to locate their headquarters in its current position. Quintero filmed a video of the sunset from the terrace and then sent the video to one of the bosses in charge of making the final decision on the location of Google's office in Malaga, and it worked.

Room to grow

The 2,500-square-metre space will be used by Google's VirusTotal team. VirusTotal is a department created by the Spanish security company Hispasec Sistemas and was launched in June 2004. It was acquired by Google in September 2012 before the company's ownership switched in January 2018, to become a subsidiary of Google.

The new building will have space to accomodate 100 staff and also a dedicated space to host important events, conferences and training courses. There will also be a gym and restaurant on-site.

Until now, the VirusTotal team has been housed in offices in the Ada Byron building of the University of Malaga.

Google said that the centre in Malaga will serve as a "European hub for joint research on advanced threats". But its scope will go beyond Europe. "It will be a key global hub for our cyber defence strategy", Google's global president of international affairs Kent Walker said.

The new cybersecurity centre is expected to open its doors before the end of the year.