The Mothership Has Landed
How many times do you get to visualize a project designed by a world leading architecture firm for a world leading company? I wish I could have been on the team doing the new “Mothership” – Apple’s new campus in Cupertino designed by Foster + Partner. Steve Jobs says the groundbreaking for this magnificent flying-saucer-like edifice is planned for next year, with completion scheduled for 2015. What do you think of it – Design & Visuals?
The new documents confirm Foster + Partners as the architects, working with ARUP North America and Kier & Wright, a local civil engineering firm that has worked on Apples current campus and buildings for other tech companies (eBay, Nvidia, Cisco, Netflix and Sun, among others).
Beyond the renderings in the gallery below, you can see PDF’s (Intro, site plan/landscaping, floor plans, renderings) available for download from Cupertino.org that show even more details.
Here’s what Steve Jobs had to say about it…
Its a pretty amazing building. Its a little like a spaceship landed. Its got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle Its a circle. Its curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. Its all curved. Weve used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building Its pretty cool.
Read more about it on Archdaily – More about Foster + Partners new Apple Campus in Cupertino
I find it odd that no images were made to show how this design looks from inside the circle… That would be more interesting to the people at Apple I guess. Selling it to Cupertino you only need to show it outside 😉
Great Post! I was looking for the render maker… Who is it?
An interesting shape but too flat for my tastes, I would prefer some undulating curves creating more stories in some areas. Renders are okay….
@3DDArchitecture I think it was a Foster in-house work… else we would see a credit for the visualizer too (I hope they would get the credit)
@hughwhite3d I like the ones with the building glimpsing from the landscaping… nice work was made on the landscaping.
Doesn’t that look like the iPhone and iPad home button from above? Maybe they should consider adding a rectangle in the middle so it would be more clear 🙂
Sorry… I meant a square 🙂
..looks like pentagon with meshsmooth applied..;)
I just saw the post in archdaily.I was interested in it.the visualization is nice but the shape is too simple.it surely applies to the function the y needed for the project.actually both shape & plan are important for each project to work on
@RobertJohn Could be nice if you could change iterations in real life too 😉 A dynamic building!
Thats true! i heard some people push their iterations by using botox…:D…its going to be offtopic now…btw what about release of new IBL tut. ?..:)@ronenbekerman
@toktam_arch I actually think this design is spot on and represents Apple’s “Closed Garden” Philosophy very well. I wonder how much of this basic Idea was Apple’s or Foster’s? What do you think?
About the renderings – I’m still not 100% sure this was an in-house job, but the technical level of some of them suggest this wasn’t the work of one of the big archviz studios – and claiming for tight schedules will not stick… this type of design and presentation under Steve’s tight control will never be left out for the last possible minute.
Renderings aside, I really think this will be a cool place to work in… one that will help foster even more creativity at apple 😉
@RobertJohn lol 😀
@RobertJohn Delayed so I can get CITY LIFE Going 😉 It will run on a new dedicated site… so making final tweaks on it and hope to launch any day now!
PRESENTATION – 10
ARCHITECTURE – 0
I happen to really like the renderings! They have character and are nicely composed and they demonstrate the feel of the project very well. It’s that 2.5D style, or “90% Photoshop” which can look very nice while keeping things quick. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 3d artist(s) was/were under a very tight timeline; even big firms don’t have all the time in the world.
The design works for what it is and it doesn’t try to be something it’s not, or outshine its purpose, much like many other Foster projects. It’s also in keeping with Apple’s simplicity and elegance, I suppose.
The design is not that spectacular (then they would have had ask another studio to do it. It really is a shame that they only published exterior renderings. What does this thing look like on the inside? And also, as Ronan rightfully said, why no images from inside the circle?
The visuals are very, very well done. A cross between art and realism. Each image leads the viewer, plus they have a very warm and soft color pallette which gives it a nice soft mood.
Well done.
@3DDArchitecture Now I know for sure – It was the Foster+Partners in-house team that did the visuals 😉
@ronenbekerman Indeed but some has nothing to do with our visuals as these had been badly modified (especially last one) by the design teams. There’s plenty of internal renders as well (to come).
@Rwande Interesting. Would love to see more as it is made available 😉
Well it’s just a saucer, maybe the exterior is not all that important for the concept rather than function, and probably just like the New World Symphony building in Miami Beach’s Art Deco district by Frank Gehry is not that attractive on the outside but all the Gehry is happening on the inside because of the Art Deco perseverance crap. By the way I’ve seen far better renders on evermotion. Not impressed at all.
I’m not surprised they chose this building shape, it looks like a perfect building to gain as much solar energy as possible, 360 degrees of solar gain on the roof. I am pretty sure, one of the main design decisions was based on sustainability. The renderings look like they were done overnight by inhouse team that had to wait for the designers to finish the final design decisions for phase 1 conceptual drawings. I am sure that the next phase of renderings will be outsourced to some famous viz firm.
also a colleague of mine at foster told me it was in the house renders!
@ronenbekerman
Surely in house could not cope with the amount of visuals requested by the design teams so there’s external companies needed. 2-3 of them were involved in the past few years in the making of these images. Most of the visuals has been done in hurry indeed but paid close attention for high quality standards. Currently freelancers needed here at F+P for cooperation in similar projects in the future so feel free to get in touch!
@Rwande count me in boss