Inside Ford’s new global headquarters: Jennifer Kolstad on designing culture, identity and change

Ford’s new headquarters in Dearborn does not announce itself with height. Instead, it stretches outward. Designed by Snøhetta as the architectural centrepiece of Ford’s redesigned Research and Engineering campus, the Central Campus Building spans more than two million square feet across four horizontal floors, forming a vast, low-slung structure embedded within the landscape rather than towering above it.

The decision to build horizontally rather than vertically was deliberate. Snøhetta’s masterplan replaces Ford’s fragmented collection of ageing buildings with a single, unified workplace where design, engineering and leadership operate in close proximity. The building is organised around a series of internal courtyards, allowing daylight and landscape to penetrate deep into the interior while breaking down the scale of the architecture. 

 The new campus establishes the material language, spatial principles and brand expression that will now define Ford worldwide

Its glass facade, articulated in layered horizontal bands, reduces the perceived mass while reinforcing Ford’s identity as a manufacturer shaped by aerodynamics, movement and precision. Native planting and ecological restoration extend this logic into the landscape, transforming the campus into an environmental and organisational ecosystem designed for collaboration and long-term adaptability.

For Jennifer Kolstad, Ford's global design and brand director, the building represents the culmination of a far larger mission. Since joining the company, she has led a global effort to overhaul and rebrand Ford’s physical presence, aligning its workplaces, retail environments and campuses with a unified architectural identity. The scale of that transformation is vast. “Remember our global footprint. Our portfolio is almost 300 million square feet,” she says. 

“By 2027, we will have touched 90% of our global workplace.” Dearborn serves as the architectural anchor of that reset. It establishes the material language, spatial principles and brand expression that will now define Ford worldwide. Where once its offices varied widely in quality and identity, Kolstad’s goal has been to ensure that wherever employees or visitors encounter Ford physically, “you will see beautiful consistency.”

Kolstad emphasises that the building was conceived holistically. Architecture, furniture, art and materials were developed together rather than sequentially. “We designed everything simultaneously,” Kolstad says. “Architecture, millwork, furniture, art. It was all happening at once.”

Kolstad leads Car Design News a tour of the building, explaining how the physical environment reflects a broader transformation inside Ford itself. Arrival, she makes clear, was one of the most important design decisions. Rather than a single monumental entrance, the building has two primary thresholds, each serving a different cultural purpose.

The material palette is as minimal as it can be,” Kolstad says. “Concrete, white oak. These are museum-grade materials.

The tour begins at the Village Lobby, the main entry point for employees. Unlike traditional corporate headquarters, it does not present itself as a formal reception space. “The Village Lobby is meant to be the main employee entry,” Kolstad explains. “That’s why it’s designed to feel more like a living room. It’s got furnishings. It’s meant to be more comfortable. There’s food and beverage right at the door. That’s all by design.”

Soft seating, natural materials and immediate access to shared social spaces signal that this entrance prioritises people rather than hierarchy. Employees arrive directly into the building’s social centre, reinforcing a sense of openness and accessibility.

By contrast, the Oakwood Lobby on the opposite side of the building serves as the formal entrance for visitors, executives and media. This space functions as both reception and showroom. “The Oakwood lobby… that’s the showroom,” Kolstad says. “That’s like our formal entry.”

Here, the architecture becomes more ceremonial. Sculptural furniture – a twisting reception desk that could come from Ross Lovegrove’s portfolio – archival installations and vehicle display areas create a carefully controlled brand environment. Where the Village Lobby emphasises comfort, the Oakwood Lobby emphasises identity.

Despite these differences, both entrances share the same underlying architectural discipline. Kolstad emphasises the importance of restraint in shaping the building’s material expression. “The material palette is as minimal as it can be,” she says. “Concrete, white oak. These are museum-grade materials.”

This simplicity allows light to define the experience of space. Skylights and courtyards bring daylight deep into the building’s interior, ensuring that even its immense floorplate feels connected to the outside world.

Art and archival content play an equally important role in reinforcing Ford’s identity. Kolstad describes a global art programme that now includes thousands of pieces across Ford’s facilities

“Wherever you are, you should have ample access to natural light,” Kolstad explains. “It makes a two million square foot behemoth building quite remarkable, that you would not feel like you’re in a cave.” The building’s organisation reinforces this sense of permeability. From the Village Lobby, circulation flows directly into the central gallery, a vast internal street lined with food pavilions, seating areas and meeting spaces.

Inside, the building’s social centre takes the form of a large food hall, referred to internally as the gallery. Kolstad emphasises that this is not a conventional corporate cafeteria. Instead, it consists of multiple independent food pavilions designed to operate like standalone restaurants. She says the food programme was one of the earliest and most important components of the masterplan, reflecting Ford’s broader commitment to employee wellbeing. “They’re basically standalone restaurants. Scratch kitchens. If we’re saying we care about wellness, we need to nourish and feed our people,” she explains. 

The layout of the building reflects behavioural principles rooted in biophilic design. Kolstad references the concept of prospect and refuge, which describes how individuals instinctively seek environments that balance openness and protection. Some people prefer to sit with their backs against a wall, while others prefer open, exposed positions with clear views. Kolstad explains that the building intentionally accommodates both. “We’ve designed for that intentionally,” she says, allowing employees to choose environments that match their psychological comfort.

These spatial conditions appear throughout the building, allowing individuals to choose environments that suit their psychological comfort. The courtyards deepen this connection between architecture and human experience. Each courtyard represents a Michigan ecosystem, expressed through vegetation and colour. “Michigan weather is grey a lot of the year,” Kolstad says. “We needed to bring light and colour and life to the building.”

Over time, these courtyards will mature into interior landscapes, reinforcing Snøhetta’s vision of the campus as an integrated ecological environment rather than a sealed corporate object. Occupying these courtyards are little alpine lodge style buildings, which allow for teams to have offsite meetings without ever leaving the campus.

Art and archival content play an equally important role in reinforcing Ford’s identity. Kolstad describes a global art programme that now includes thousands of pieces across Ford’s facilities. These works combine commissioned art, historical materials and locally sourced pieces from regional artists. She says the archives themselves became a valuable resource, allowing Ford to reconnect with its own heritage. “Our archives are incredible,” she says, noting that many materials had never previously been publicly displayed.

One installation, which bears more than a passing resemblance to a Damien Hirst spot painting, catalogues Ford’s historic paint colours, transforming industrial material into cultural artefact. Kolstad explains that the team identified hundreds of significant colours from Ford’s history and displayed them as a visual timeline. “We catalogued our Ford historical colours starting from Model T black,” Kolstad says. “Picked out hundreds of our most significant colours moving across the ages.”

Continuity between past and present was also achieved through the reuse of historic furniture. Kolstad notes that legacy boardroom tables and even Henry Ford’s desk were preserved and integrated into contemporary spaces. These elements provide continuity while reinforcing the sense of evolution rather than rupture.

Snøhetta’s building provides the structural framework. Kolstad’s global programme gives it meaning

For Kolstad, architecture is ultimately a tool for shaping culture. She says one of her first priorities upon joining Ford was to understand the company’s workforce demographics. The goal, she explains, was to design environments that would support a broader and more diverse population. She believes inclusive design benefits everyone. “If you can design for people who are specifically neurosensitive, then you’re actually designing for a broader population,” she says.

For Kolstad, architecture is ultimately a tool for shaping organisational culture. When she joined Ford, demographic data made the urgency clear. “Within ten years, 60% of our workforce would churn,” she says. The workplace needed to evolve alongside that shift.

The building’s design supports that evolution by prioritising wellbeing, collaboration and inclusivity. Architecture becomes a framework for organisational transformation rather than simply a container for it.

Snøhetta’s building provides the structural framework. Kolstad’s global programme gives it meaning. Together, they have created a headquarters that reflects Ford’s effort to redefine itself, not just through its vehicles, but through the environments in which its future is imagined and built. The result is a headquarters that reflects Ford’s effort to modernise while remaining anchored in its heritage. Rather than simply housing employees, the building expresses the company’s ambitions. It signals a shift not only in how Ford designs vehicles, but in how it designs itself.