Apple is now giving everyone the official in-depth look inside its new Apple Park campus, including details about the original design of the "Ring" building, images of the building's construction and interiors, and a whole lot more.
Call it a behemoth mothership, or an architectural masterpiece — Apple's new campus is a feast for one's eyes. Surrounded by greenery, Apple, along with the architects and workers who helped bring the mothership to life, deftly meshed nature and architecture together. In fact, this was one of the original aims.
Apple Campus: A Spaceship Has Landed
According to an article by Wired, Steve Jobs wanted to build the campus to consolidate all his employees amid the company's steep upswing. One of the original goals was to build a campus "where the border between nature and building would be blurred." Jobs thought run-of-the-mill corporate buildings were "pretty boring." He wanted the centerpiece to look "like a spaceship landed."
We certainly got that spaceship.
Construction and updates about the campus stretched out over the years, with current Apple CEO Tim Cook calling the long-gestating Apple Park as the company's "biggest project ever."
Jobs originally envisioned a reimagined headquarters for Apple as far back as 2004, discussing it with Jony Ive, Apple's Chief Design Officer. But it wasn't until 2009 when those plans grew legs, as Jobs hired architect Norman Foster, setting the vision in motion.
Creativity Pods
Beyond the sheer scale and beauty of the building, there was always the underpinning goal of boosting creativity — form follows function, as the classic mantra goes.
Originally, there were plans to design "pods" solely for fostering creative ideas, teamwork, and socializing. Jobs originally envisioned that many pods would be scattered across the site, and the concept was they'd serve as these gestating areas where you can work on something and then later move to another group of people in another pod. Hence, the practice of collaboration is promoted — walls would be broken down, sharing ideas would be encouraged. Most importantly, reaching someone to talk to would be as easy as moving to a different pod, no more hierarchal hurdles when it comes to creativity.
