Norman Foster speaks on creating Apple Park's iconic spaceship campus

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Norman Foster, the man responsible for Apple Park's iconic design, sat down for a new interview to talk about that process and his time with late CEO Steve Jobs.


Apple Park



Apple has called Cupertino, California, a home for quite some time. From 1993 until 2017, Apple conducted a majority of its business at the Apple Infinite Loop campus.

However, in 2018, the company officially swapped its headquarters for Apple Park, a massive ring-shaped campus affectionately dubbed "The Spaceship." The building was pitched by late CEO Steve Jobs, and was designed by English architect and designer Norman Foster.

In a new interview from the San Francisco Standard's Life in Seven Songs podcast, Foster sits down and discusses how the project went from the drawing board to reality.

When asked what his favorite story behind the project was, Foster recalled a time when he'd worked directly with Jobs. As many projects tend to do, Apple Park went through many iterations before it was finalized. A half year into the project, Jobs and Foster finally nailed down the design.

"The earliest studies were all very curvilinear, and it was only at a point of crisis when I remember Steve saying, 'Every project needs a crisis. We have to take advantage of it.' And it was at that point that the project morphed into the circle. That must have been 6 or 7 months into the project.

So that circular image enclosing the big green space with the landscape outside, recreating the California landscape, the fruit basket of Steve Jobs' youth growing up, that was the moment."



He says the design was less a flash of inspiration and more of a culmination of a lengthy design process. And the design process is very important to Foster.

For him, a good design should do more than function as a practical space but also as a space to inspire and uplift. It's less about prioritizing form over function but rather considering form as part of function -- a space's atmosphere is just as important as its plumbing, heating, and cooling.

"I'd argue that an essential part of the function is how it makes us feel. Does it lift our spirits? We know that a patient recovering from surgery, if that patient is in a room with a view, as opposed to facing a brick wall, that patient will leave hospital earlier," he notes.

"As a designer, I'd say it's not about either or. All of those things should be integrated. That's the essence of good design."

And Foster finds the campus' nickname fitting, too. As it turns out, he's a pilot in addition to being an architect and designer.

"All of the newspapers, the periodicals, the reporting, repetitiously, they all, you know, ]the mothership has landed. We have liftoff.' It was all the terminology of space." he says. "And for me, that's very satisfying because space and the world of flight has always been kind of part of my life, particularly flying."

The rest of the interview discusses his design philosophy, his past jobs, and how he came to be an architect.

Apple is planning on adding another campus in North Carolina, though it's not terribly clear when that will happen.



Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    fumifumi Posts: 25member
    Foster never built that place. The iPhone did.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 7
    9secondkox29secondkox2 Posts: 3,139member
    It wasn’t foster by himself. It was the culmination of Jobs, Ive, and Foster. Sure, he knew how to architect it, but Jobs and I’ve had the look and feel they were going for. A design collab. But this dude seems happy claiming it all for himself. 

    Still, wish he’d design my next house…
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 7
    22july201322july2013 Posts: 3,731member
    Foster also designed the McLaren HQ building in England, which looks a lot like the Apple campus. Search for it on Google Maps. And I still think Apple should buy out McLaren completely, which is the equivalent of Apple in the car manufacturing business. Back when I first started pushing this idea on these forums, McLaren's market cap was around $2B, (less than what Apple paid for Beats) but now it's $4B. Pocket change for Apple.

    If Apple does buy McLaren, McLaren should build a new car to fully implement Apple's CarPlay ideas and values, and the car should be called the "McLaren Macintosh." It rolls off the tongue.
    edited July 30 watto_cobramarklarkjony0
  • Reply 4 of 7
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,904moderator
    Foster also designed the McLaren HQ building in England, which looks a lot like the Apple campus. Search for it on Google Maps. And I still think Apple should buy out McLaren completely, which is the equivalent of Apple in the car manufacturing business. Back when I first started pushing this idea on these forums, McLaren's market cap was around $2B, (less than what Apple paid for Beats) but now it's $4B. Pocket change for Apple.

    If Apple does buy McLaren, McLaren should build a new car to fully implement Apple's CarPlay ideas and values, and the car should be called the "McLaren Macintosh." It rolls off the tongue.
    I’ve seen enough YouTubers and their McLarens to believe their cars are nothing like the reliability of iPhones.  I’d rather see Apple buy Mazda.  
    edited July 30 watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 7
    AfarstarAfarstar Posts: 79member
    fumi said:
    Foster never built that place. The iPhone did.
    What an utterly ridiculous comment. 
    citpekstmayiqatedoNotSoMuchjony0
  • Reply 6 of 7
    citpekscitpeks Posts: 253member
    Why would Apple want to buy McLaren from the Bahrain wealth fund?  Especially when it has abandoned the car business it was never officially in?

    The McLaren F1 team has been doing well of late, but it's been a long, hard road back, and I wouldn't expect to see Apple branding displacing Google's branding on the cars any time soon.

    The IndyCar team has spent a lot of money, and still can't be considered one of the top two in the series.  Teddy Porkchops losing the #6 to Howdy Doody's dad's money has been the latest in the series of questionable driver moves.  And Lundgaard was probably asking less than Rossi wanted.

    With Arrow rumored to be reducing its role, if not pulling out entirely, Zak's gotta find someone else to help pay the bills.

    The production car side hasn't had great financials.

    The MTC campus was sold to a REIT, and leased back.  They don't even own the Foster-designed building any longer.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 7
    ruerue Posts: 13member
    For this reason Apple should make an immersive video tour of Apple Park that I can view in my AVP.
    watto_cobra
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