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Every time I see that picture of Apple's new campus, I'm again and again blown away by that stunningly gorgeous design. A mile-long ring of solar panels on it's roof, and after the landscaping has matured, it looks like you have a tree-view out of each and every window in that building.

Also the most you'd have to walk from point A to point B, is the size of the buildings diameter, across the courtyard, which is overall the most efficient way to get to the farthest point, from anywhere in the building.
 
No, it's not bad, but why would you want to be a janitor in a sterile looking, wheel shaped office building?

On the other hand, I can imagine wanting to be a janitor in the Hermitage or Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

Russia is too far away for me :cool:
plus there is probably free Starbucks in the office building :D
 
They should make staggered and cramped sleeping quarters that ensure that the workers can't leave. Then it'll be really an Apple facility, like the Foxconn factories.
 
Looks great from the outside. I'm looking forward to seeing what the inside will be like, not only the layout but what other features and amenities it will have.
 
Besides the grandiose gesture it certainly is an interesting concept, but I wonder how people will feel working in the building… it might be a bit disorienting (shape) and dehumanizing (scale)?

I guess we'll find out, assuming somebody manages to escape :p

They can walk throughthe centre I believe to quickly access anothe rpart of the building, the outside is forest the inside more zen garden with an area for relaxing. This will be a very stressful and driven environment, Apple know better than most how hard you can push someone but also to get the most out of them you need to keep people sane lol.


Underground parking to save the scenery seems like a fantastic idea, but room for 12,000 employees??? I doubt very many will be carpooling, and from the size of the park outside of the building, public transportation will only be able to get you so close. You've set yourself up for a truly MASSIVE project Apple...

Well a great number of campus employees do live locally and are brought in from the city by a bus each day put on by Apple. This as your probably aware itself has caused controversy with residents and the powers that be charging a bus tax for using city bus stops and potentially holding up other commuters.

Goinf by earlier designs for the camput there will be a single road that will snake through the forest up to the campus obscuring it from all view until suddenly you go around the final corner and are met with this huge building and your astounded at a) the design and b) how it can be hidden in such a beautiful forest.
 
Sounds absolutely stunning. Jobs had a great and grand vision for this, I'm so glad it's going to be realised. I can't wait to come visit it! :apple:

Contact me when you are ready to take a visit.

By then, I will have set up a business conducting "Hajj" (religious pilgrimages) to the New Apple Mothership Campus at Cupertino. I will be your personal tour guide and travel agent. My fees will be reasonable.


Additional (optional) side excursions:

1) Day trip at the Steve Jobs family home in Palo Alto, $150

2) Lunch buffet at The Raging Lotus, Cupertino's best New Age vegan-hippie restaurant, $60

3) Meet-and-greet dinner with Steve Wozniak* (location TBA), $300



* dinner is all-you-can-eat buffet, The Woz wouldn't have it any other way
 
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Nothing new here! We have one in the UK already.

GCHQ.jpg
 
The idea is that the building will be so magnificent that no one will want to go home... ever.

I've worked in an amazing building that had everything you could possibly need. I still couldn't wait to go home at 5pm each day.

Work is just work. When it takes over your life, you have a problem.

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They should make staggered and cramped sleeping quarters that ensure that the workers can't leave. Then it'll be really an Apple facility, like the Foxconn factories.

The Foxconn factories are Foxconn facilities. Apple is just a customer.
 
Underground parking to save the scenery seems like a fantastic idea, but room for 12,000 employees??? I doubt very many will be carpooling, and from the size of the park outside of the building, public transportation will only be able to get you so close. You've set yourself up for a truly MASSIVE project Apple...

Actually, there is NO parking. Because iTeleport. What did you think all hat saphire glass is for? (Hint: iTransporter pads.)

;)
 
They should make staggered and cramped sleeping quarters that ensure that the workers can't leave. Then it'll be really an Apple facility, like the Foxconn factories.

Most big factories in Asia keep their staff in cheap housing and bus them to and from the job.
I'll bet the staff making the Apple products are treated better than most.
 
Every time I see that picture of Apple's new campus, I'm again and again blown away by that stunningly gorgeous design. A mile-long ring of solar panels on it's roof, and after the landscaping has matured, it looks like you have a tree-view out of each and every window in that building.

Also the most you'd have to walk from point A to point B, is the size of the buildings diameter, across the courtyard, which is overall the most efficient way to get to the farthest point, from anywhere in the building.

You didn't think that through did you? For that to be true every point A and every point B has to be located near a door. Your math doesn't account for multiple floors. Also yo... you didn't think this through did you?
 
How close are we to the iPhone making plants where they make the staff live there in their company supplied dorms? :eek:

Foxcon provides dorms for their workers because there's no other place for them to live nearby. Most of the workers move there to work because there are no really good jobs where they live, their leaving home makes room for other family members, and their checks help support their entire family back home. They live there by choice.
 
Every time I see that picture of Apple's new campus, I'm again and again blown away by that stunningly gorgeous design. A mile-long ring of solar panels on it's roof, and after the landscaping has matured, it looks like you have a tree-view out of each and every window in that building.

Also the most you'd have to walk from point A to point B, is the size of the buildings diameter, across the courtyard, which is overall the most efficient way to get to the farthest point, from anywhere in the building.

As in most every office building, the window views are limited and usually given to the select few. As far as A to B, the courtyard is readily accessed from only one of the four floors. I would think there would be an abundant supply of stairs, escalators, and elevators throughout the building. Workers will likely be stationed in and remain in a small section of the building anyway. Visits to the courtyard will likely be few and far between. The renderings show a smattering of employees using the courtyard, not the potential of 12,000. I certainly wouldn't want to visit a mob scene often.
 
As in most every office building, the window views are limited and usually given to the select few. As far as A to B, the courtyard is readily accessed from only one of the four floors. I would think there would be an abundant supply of stairs, escalators, and elevators throughout the building. Workers will likely be stationed in and remain in a small section of the building anyway. Visits to the courtyard will likely be few and far between. The renderings show a smattering of employees using the courtyard, not the potential of 12,000. I certainly wouldn't want to visit a mob scene often.

Or they could do what's rumored to happen in my new office building - it was leaked at a model unveiling that the beautiful rooftop garden would only be accessible to Sr. executives ...
 
I'm curious, does anyone know if this is the same Hewlett-Packard location where Steve Jobs worked?
 
I am thinking about something like this for my company. We are not big enough for it yet. Hopefully by the end of the year.
 
Lots of ironies here, for those who appreciate architecture, and the kinds of rationales that can be used to justify solutions that aren't necessarily derived from design problems.

The first it the reference to "public" vs. "private" space. Unlike the analogy to the square offered up by Foster, this project has no public space whatsoever. The entire site is private, and will be completely walled off from the street -- which renders both the use and the symbolism of spaces within the ring and outside of the ring quite meaningless from that standpoint. The square makes no sense as a guiding principle.

The second is the reference to "banishing" of cars. Visually, perhaps, but only because they will be buried underground in garages. This project is otherwise totally married to the car. Perhaps Sir Norman borrowed some of Steve's RDF to convince himself that the cars don't exist because you can't see them from above ground.

The third is the almost scary analogy to airports. Never mind that most people find negotiating airports to be a nightmare, the space planning required by airports is so utterly different that one wonders why Foster even mentions it, especially as it brings up the question of getting around this gigantic ring. Foster dodges this question by comparing it favorably to even worse solutions.

This interview pretty much confirms what some of us took from this design the first time we saw it: that Steve wanted a ring, and he hired Norman Foster to try to make it work. Sadly, it's a pure vanity building, and they generally have problems because they are first and foremost not about architecture.

You are wrong on all points, if you read and think about what is in the interview. They started with the idea of a colloquium space for the academy, and ended up with a circle. For "public," you should substitute "Apple employees," as you well know.
 
You are wrong on all points, if you read and think about what is in the interview. They started with the idea of a colloquium space for the academy, and ended up with a circle. For "public," you should substitute "Apple employees," as you well know.

Am I the only one who actually reads the articles?

So what made the form of a ring the logical choice for this building?

It's interesting how it evolved. First of all, there was a smaller site. Then, as the project developed, and the Hewlett-Packard site became available, the scale of the project changed.

Meanwhile, the reference point for Steve [Jobs] was always the large space on the Stanford campus—the Main Quad—which Steve knew intimately. Also, he would reminisce about the time when he was young, and California was still the fruit bowl of the United States. It was still orchards.

We did a continuous series of base planning studies. One idea which came out of it is that you can get high density by building around the perimeter of a site, as in the squares of London. And in the case of a London square, you create a mini-park in the center. So a series of organic segments in the early studies started to form enclosures, all of which were in turn related to the scale of the Stanford campus. These studies finally morphed into a circular building that would enclose the private space in the middle—essentially a park that would replicate the original California landscape, and parts of it would also recapture the orchards of the past. The car would visually be banished, and tarmac would be replaced by greenery, and car parks by jogging and bicycle trails.

http://archrecord.construction.com/features/2014/1403-Asking-Mr-Big-Norman-Foster.asp

London square enclosing park. Stanford campus quadrangle. Circular building enclosing "private space." So it appears I am wrong on no points. You didn't even attempt to address any of the others I made in any case, so your argument that I was wrong on all points is... wrong on all points.
 
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