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News & ArtsWednesday, June 8, 2011
Architecture The Apple Spaceship
Posted by Charles Mudede on Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 11:42 AM
Coming to planet earth...
- Screenshot of a Screenshot
Is this not the architecture of capital? Capital as it sees itself? Something not of this world of workers and labor issues, but as from another planet were money grows by itself, grows like the leaves on a tree.Steve Jobs gave a speech to the Cupertino City Council to get approval for a new Apple campus. It looks like "a spaceship just landed there," Jobs said.
And indeed it's a very ambitious thing. It's one giant building that would hold 12,000 people. The building is circular with "not a straight piece of glass"—all curved.
1
It would be way more cool if it was a real spaceship. Then he could fly back home to Epsilon Eridani and leave the rest of us alone.
Maybe we could even talk him into taking Bill Gates with him.
Maybe we could even talk him into taking Bill Gates with him.
2
It's the architecture of the Fifth Reich. It's evil, and shouldn't be allowed. Not even Cupertino should b be forced to live with monstrosities like that. Although the difference with us, we allow our megalomaniacs to build them practically downtown (see the Gates Foundation horrorshow).
Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but how does this interact with the street? Is it even ON a street? Everyone who works there will have to DRIVE there, and get back in their cars and DRIVE to lunch, or eat in the inevitable on-premises cafeteria, which will no doubt be of the highest quality so as to cater to their employees' every childlike need. But there's no sense of civic interaction. It's a hermetically sealed bubble world. Buildings like this bring their own little slice of moonbase into our cities like a virus -- a moonbase that ends up resembling nothing so much as the most expensive high school in the world.
F minus.
Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but how does this interact with the street? Is it even ON a street? Everyone who works there will have to DRIVE there, and get back in their cars and DRIVE to lunch, or eat in the inevitable on-premises cafeteria, which will no doubt be of the highest quality so as to cater to their employees' every childlike need. But there's no sense of civic interaction. It's a hermetically sealed bubble world. Buildings like this bring their own little slice of moonbase into our cities like a virus -- a moonbase that ends up resembling nothing so much as the most expensive high school in the world.
F minus.
4
Funny that this is being discussed today. Just this morning, on the side of a bus, I saw a rendering of the new Swedish campus they're building. You'd think it's surrounded by miles of the forest primeval. That seems to be the favored model for these sorts of campus projects: solitary and auto-oriented. What's to blame, do you think? Monumentalism? The cost and complexity of infill development?
6
@2,
Have you ever been to Cupertino? That part of the Bay Area is completely car centric. I guess Apple could build something that opens to its surroundings, but employees will still stay on campus because there's nowhere else to GO that's within walking distance. There's nothing around there except malls and golf courses. I'm not even aware that Cupertino has a downtown area (unlike Palo Alto, Mountain View, or any of the somewhat livable towns in that area).
The Apple building is just off 280 (you can see it from the freeway) and the new monstrosity is going to be no worse than what they've currently got.
Have you ever been to Cupertino? That part of the Bay Area is completely car centric. I guess Apple could build something that opens to its surroundings, but employees will still stay on campus because there's nowhere else to GO that's within walking distance. There's nothing around there except malls and golf courses. I'm not even aware that Cupertino has a downtown area (unlike Palo Alto, Mountain View, or any of the somewhat livable towns in that area).
The Apple building is just off 280 (you can see it from the freeway) and the new monstrosity is going to be no worse than what they've currently got.
7
OMG APPLE IS SOOO COOL!! I DIDNT KNOW SLOG WAS FULL OF MAC FANS LIKE ME!! IT MIGHT AS WELL BE A SPACESHIP BECAUSE EVERYTHING APPLE MAKES IS LIGHTYEARS AHEAD OF EVERYONE ELSE! THEY COMPLETELY DOMINATE EVERY ASPECT OF THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY, THEY MIGHT AS WELL BE ALIENS!!! AMIRITE?
8
It's Jobs' modern equivalent of the Wynand Building. I wouldn't be surprised if he asked the architect to, "Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours...and could have been mine."
9
@4 - I can't explain the Swedish thing, but tech companies (especially the post-IPO giants) famously encourage a sense of isolation. They provide free or cheap real-world simulatcra, and in return expect employees spent all their waking hours on campus.
11
@2 You're argument is incredibly muddled. Are you pissed that they have a state of the art cafeteria to keep people from DRIVING to lunch? Or are you pissed that employees will be DRIVING to work? (I hate to break it to you, but in places with money and sprawl like Bellevue and Cupertino, they'd be doing that regardless of whether the building touches the street or not.)
As for it being a "hermetically sealed bubble world", welcome to corporate America and the constant threat of espionage... even if that wasn't a constant concern, would you prefer that Apple spread its offices out across Cupertino so its employees can DRIVE between offices?
The city counsel video makes it clear that the structure is connected to an underground parking garage that in turn is connected to the street- allowing for the removal of the sea of parking lots that currently occupy the space, and reintroducing indigenous trees and plants over 80% of the property. Sounds a hell of a lot more environmentally friendly than any office building I've seen in Bellevue.
As for it being a "hermetically sealed bubble world", welcome to corporate America and the constant threat of espionage... even if that wasn't a constant concern, would you prefer that Apple spread its offices out across Cupertino so its employees can DRIVE between offices?
The city counsel video makes it clear that the structure is connected to an underground parking garage that in turn is connected to the street- allowing for the removal of the sea of parking lots that currently occupy the space, and reintroducing indigenous trees and plants over 80% of the property. Sounds a hell of a lot more environmentally friendly than any office building I've seen in Bellevue.
12
But it does only have one light switch with a trackpad around it for every fixture in the building?
13
Oh shit! Apple is building it's own CERN-style particle accelerator and camouflaging it as a "new campus"! We're all fucked!!!
Still, I can't wait for the release of the new iHiggsBoson 1.0 coming in 2013!
Still, I can't wait for the release of the new iHiggsBoson 1.0 coming in 2013!
15
Video of him speaking is embedded here. Considering what's there now, a largely asphalt campus abandoned by HP, it seems like this will be an improvement.
http://allthingsd.com/20110608/ispaceshi…
http://allthingsd.com/20110608/ispaceshi…
16
@11, thinking a parking garage is "environmentally friendly" because it has trees on top of it is a hell of a lot more muddled than anything I wrote.
@6, I have unfortunately spent time in Cupertino. I used to go to A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books back in the 80s. While it never had a proper downtown, because it grew up after such things were considered obsolete, it DID, and in places still does, have a little glimmer of street life. A friend of mine's grandparents ran a small store there until the 2000s that was on the street. And there's nothing stopping them from turning some of those godawful strip malls around so the parking is behind and the buildings are on the street, instead of building more and more of them like that.
The saddest words in the Cupertino Wikipedia page are these: "The goal of developing a true downtown has been regularly debated by the City Council ever since the city was incorporated in 1955."
Instead they get crap like this, which ensures that Cupertino will never ever have a civic or social life. Funny how the favorite tech company of urban hipsters is staffed almost entirely by exurban zombies.
If Apple wanted to do the right thing they'd move to downtown San Francisco. Or build new if you must, but encourage the development of SOMETHING besides your own navel-gazing Death Star.
@6, I have unfortunately spent time in Cupertino. I used to go to A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books back in the 80s. While it never had a proper downtown, because it grew up after such things were considered obsolete, it DID, and in places still does, have a little glimmer of street life. A friend of mine's grandparents ran a small store there until the 2000s that was on the street. And there's nothing stopping them from turning some of those godawful strip malls around so the parking is behind and the buildings are on the street, instead of building more and more of them like that.
The saddest words in the Cupertino Wikipedia page are these: "The goal of developing a true downtown has been regularly debated by the City Council ever since the city was incorporated in 1955."
Instead they get crap like this, which ensures that Cupertino will never ever have a civic or social life. Funny how the favorite tech company of urban hipsters is staffed almost entirely by exurban zombies.
If Apple wanted to do the right thing they'd move to downtown San Francisco. Or build new if you must, but encourage the development of SOMETHING besides your own navel-gazing Death Star.
17
@16: I agree that Cupertino is an exurban hole, but I'm not sure how Apple could change that. I also kinda respect that they're staying there instead of moving to San Fran. Jobs grew up in Cupertino, started working in Cupertino (actually worked for HP there, even though not in the building they bought), and started his company in Cupertino. I actually think there's something kinda cool about loving your hometown so much.
Also, the new development will increase the number of trees and green space on the site, and reduce the surface parking by 90%. They're also building natural gas generators, which are cleaner and safer than much of what exists on the California grid (coal and nuclear). If you're going to stay in a place like Cupertino, it's hard to imagine making something that's better than what they're doing.
I wish that Jobs said something more conclusive about traffic patterns and how they'd reduce emissions from idling, though. That's one of the big problems at Infinite Loop, and they'l have 1/4 the staff as this place.
Also, the new development will increase the number of trees and green space on the site, and reduce the surface parking by 90%. They're also building natural gas generators, which are cleaner and safer than much of what exists on the California grid (coal and nuclear). If you're going to stay in a place like Cupertino, it's hard to imagine making something that's better than what they're doing.
I wish that Jobs said something more conclusive about traffic patterns and how they'd reduce emissions from idling, though. That's one of the big problems at Infinite Loop, and they'l have 1/4 the staff as this place.
20
..."not a straight piece of glass"—all curved....
Sounds like this was dreamed up by someone who doesn't work in the finance department. Either the budget explodes like a KBR project, or the building ends up looking nothing like the original design. Once they find out that the glazier has to build an entire new, and very expensive, manufacturing facility for this special iGlass, they may decide that plain old windows will get the job done.
Sounds like this was dreamed up by someone who doesn't work in the finance department. Either the budget explodes like a KBR project, or the building ends up looking nothing like the original design. Once they find out that the glazier has to build an entire new, and very expensive, manufacturing facility for this special iGlass, they may decide that plain old windows will get the job done.
22
@20 They have already built a structure using "the largest curved glass panes in the world".
http://shanghaiist.com/2010/07/08/previe…
http://shanghaiist.com/2010/07/08/previe…
23
So, tell me, Charles. How exactly are you posting these blog entries? With a computer and operating system designed entirely by non-capitalists, or with a difference engine you've built yourself out of hand-carved sustainably-harvested wooden gears?
Capitalism is not, in itself, evil. Capitalism's monuments to itself are also not inherently evil. This particular monument has the side-effect of being utilitarian.
Or would you rather see slabs of poured concrete in place of architecture that at least tries to be interesting?
Capitalism is not, in itself, evil. Capitalism's monuments to itself are also not inherently evil. This particular monument has the side-effect of being utilitarian.
Or would you rather see slabs of poured concrete in place of architecture that at least tries to be interesting?
24
From what I can tell, this building needs only a couple of things to make it perfect: two giant hands, fingers inward, grasping the sides of the structure at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock position.
Et voilà! La touche finale!
Et voilà! La touche finale!
25
I love it. Epic, larger than life, sort of reminiscent of Italian fascist architecture.
Having worked in a few large corporate parks, I always found the "architecture" utterly humiliating. This building, in contrast, is exalting.
Having worked in a few large corporate parks, I always found the "architecture" utterly humiliating. This building, in contrast, is exalting.
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