We've spent months marveling over the facade of Apple's new headquarters. But now, thanks to these renderings from the City of Cupertino uncovered by Wired, we're getting an idea about the spaces inside the building—and it's hard to decide if it looks more like a futuristic office or a futuristic Apple store.
The campus, as we've known for a while, revolves around a massive circular building of nearly three million square feet. Designed by British architect Norman Foster, the space is designed to promote collaboration, but connecting interior and exterior spaces through a long, continuous corridor. A separate cluster of buildings set off from the main building will house research and development, and there's also a massive underground auditorium that will be home to product launches and major events. Oh, and don't forget about the cafeteria; it's 90,000 square feet.
Outside, it's a veritable eco reserve. Foster says the landscape is designed to resemble the Santa Clara Valley of Steve Jobs's youth, "an ecologically rich oak savanna reminiscent of the early Santa Clara Valley" according to the company's proposal. As Wired's Kyle Vanhemert describes it, the landscape doesn't look like an office complex at all, but rather a park filled with fruit trees—cherry, plum and apricot, amongst others—not to mention fountains and wooded groves. The building itself is an ecosystem, too, since it will aim to become one of the most environmentally sustainable buildings in the world.
In a way, the new headquarters just looks like a massive Apple store—probably because it shares the spartan aesthetic we've come to expect from the company. The fact that the renderings show a reception desk that could just as easily be a Genius Bar and hallways lined with iPod Nanos certainly adds to the retail ambience.
As Apple put it, though, the office is designed to be "a serene environment reflecting Apple’s brand values of innovation, ease of use and beauty." Beauty? We've known this building was hot for a while. Ease of use? The new interior photos do make the mothership look like a place we'd like to work. Innovation? Only time will tell. [Wired]
All images via City of Cupertino