The spaceship is coming! Apple's radical 175 acre circular HQ begins to rise from the ground in Cupertino

Apple founder Steve Jobs originally submitted the application for the Cupertino headquarters back in 2011

The campus will be a mile in circumference, feature glass walls and solar panels and cover 175 acres

Cars will be 'banished and buried' in an underground car park and tarmac will be replaced with greenery

Glass walls the height of the building will slide open, and cafes and restaurants will help break up the vast scale

More than 1,000 bikes will be kept on site to help staff make their way around the circular campus



Will be surrounded by a man-made forest of 7,000 trees


Apple's 'Spaceship' office is beginning to rise in Cupertino.



Apple's futuristic new campus, which Steve Jobs first submitted the application for in 2011, will be a mile in circumference, feature glass walls and solar panels and cover 175 acres.

Today, it was revealed the 'spaceship' is beginning to take shape, with the internal 'ring' clearly visible from the sky.



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The Spaceship comes in to land: The circular 'ring' of the building can clearly be seen in this image.

The picture, taken by Ron Cervi, a News and traffic reporter for KCBS and posted to his instgram feed, shows how quickly work on the vast structure is being carried out.

Images taken by Apple Toolbox, in April showed the site had simply been cleared.

'The photos show that construction has been progressing quickly,' the site said.

'Apple’s spaceship campus is beginning to take its 'spaceship like' circular shape.



Concept images of Apple's Cupertino headquarters only reveal one part of a story which began in 2011 when co-founder Steve Jobs laid down plans for a futuristic new campus.

During an interview with Architectural Record, chief architect Sir Norman Foster recently gave an additional insight into how Apple's 'spaceship' will be built - as well as the inspiration behind its circular and 'organic' design.



This includes cars being 'banished and buried' in underground car parks, tarmac being replaced by greenery and windows that stretch the full height of the four-storey main building that slide open.

Construction of Apple's Campus 2, due to open in 2016, has already begun with the buildings previously on the site having been demolished and the circular 'spaceship' outline clearly visible in these pictures taken by Apple Toolbox.



This room-sized mock-up of the planned Apple headquarters in Cupertino was released in November last year before executives submitted their plans to the council









He also revealed that there will be room for 1,000 bikes and the tricks he is using to make the giant campus seem compact.

'It's interesting how it evolved,' explained Foster. '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.



'The reference point for Steve [Jobs] was always the large space on the Stanford campus - the Main Quad - which Steve knew intimately.



'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.'

During an interview with Architectural Record, chief architect Norman Foster gave an insight into how Apple's 'spaceship' headquarters in Cupertino, illustration pictured, will be built - as well as the inspiration behind the circular design of the main building on the 175-acre site. Work is expected to be completed in 2016

With this in mind, Foster said he wanted to add a series of 'organic segments' to the Cupertino building - n icknamed the Apple spaceship because of its vast circular shape that covers 175-acre and features a man-made forest of more than 7,000 trees.

He also wanted the circular building to surround a private space in the centre, designed to replicate the California landscape, and mimic the orchards that Jobs remembered fondly.



As a result, Foster told Architectural Record: 'The car would visually be banished, and tarmac would be replaced by greenery, and car parks by jogging and bicycle trails.'

The ring-shaped structure was Jobs’ brainchild, yet after his death British designer Jony Ive took the project on with the help of Sir Foster, and the local council approved their ambitious plans last year.

Foster said he wanted to add a series of 'organic segments' to the Cupertino building because co-founder Steve Jobs wanted the circular building to surround a private space in the centre, designed to replicate the California landscape, and mimic the orchards that Jobs remembered fondly as a child. The plans feature underground parking hidden from view, illustration pictured. Sir Foster told Architectural Record: 'The car would visually be banished, and tarmac would be replaced by greenery'

During his initial proposals, Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs said he wanted the building to be covered in 40ft floor-to-ceiling panes of curved glass so that all of the building's four storeys would be visible from the outside and offer a large amount of natural light, pictured. Sir Foster said these glass panels 'can literally move sideways and just open up into the landscape' to make the building seem more open

Apple's Campus 2 was designed by Sir Norman Foster, pictured, and his firm Foster and Partners. The architectural experts also designed Wembley Stadium, London City Hall and The Gherkin

When Jobs first submitted the plans back in 2011 the campus was billed as 'the best office building in the world'.



It has taken since then to get approval from the local council and its likely the campus won't be completed until 2016.

Reports in April 2013 claimed the project had already exceeded its budget by around $2 billion (£1.32bn), pushing the total cost up to around $5 billion (£3.14 billion) and putting it a year behind schedule.



Earlier this year Apple was asked to submit new plans with updated landscaping designed, a slightly revised floor layout, renderings, and a bicycle plan, however the overall main design wasn't changed.



Under these updated plans, the campus was renamed Apple Campus 2.



Appearing as a giant saucer, the Silicon Valley site near the 280 Highway will be home to 13,000 Apple employees. When asked how these employees will make their way around the huge campus, Sir Foster said: 'The proximity, the adjacencies are very, very carefully considered.

'Remember also that the scale is broken down by cafes and lobbies and entrances. You have four-storey-high glass walls, which can literally move sideways and just open up into the landscape. So the social facilities break down the scale.'

Sir Foster added there will also be jogging and cycling trails, with more than a thousand bikes kept on site at all times, which staff can use to make their way around.



The Spaceship will have 360-degree curved glass fronted walls and central courtyard as well as a 1,000-seater auditorium, a gym and 300,000 square feet of 'research' space.

Apple Campus 2 will additionally have underground parking hidden from view, meaning 80 per cent of the site can be covered in trees. The site was previously owned by Hewlett Packard and the majority of the area is currently covered in asphalt.

The new images also show access roads that lead into tunnels that take cars into the underground car park. They also show the parts of the car park that will be on show pictured covered in plants and greenery to help it blend in with the natural surroundings.

This image shows the Apple Campus 2 from above. The site will be surrounded by a man-made forest featuring 7,000 trees. It was previously owned by Hewlett Packard and is currently covered in around 80 per cent asphalt

Among the 7,000 trees that will be planted around the campus, the firm intends to plant species that blossom at different times of the year. This includes apple trees, as well as cherry blossoms, plum trees and other fruit trees and bushes similar to the ones pictured

Inside the third-of-a-mile wide building will be 1,000-seater auditorium where Apple's CEO Tim Cook will present the company's keynotes ahead of product launches, for example. This auditorium will be covered with a circular glass pavilion, pictured, that will also be an access point for employees and guests

Elsewhere underground, the auditorium will be where Apple's CEO Tim Cook will present the companies keynotes ahead of product launches, for example. This auditorium will be covered with a circular glass pavilion that will also be an access point for employees and guests.

Natural gas will, primarily, provide the building's power and the local energy grid will only be accessed in emergencies. The glass structure will also be fitted with solar panels.



‘You see the energy and the love and the attention to detail that we've put into this,’ said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer at an unveiling of the top secret spaceship plans.

‘We have treated this project just as we would any Apple product. And this will be a place for the most creative and collaborative teams in the industry to innovate for decades to come.’

The circular, four-storey building will be around a mile in circumference and a third of a mile wide and was recently described by the San Fransisco Weekly as a ‘massive glass doughnut’ .

The building stays eco-friendly with natural ventilation that works instead of air-conditioning for 70 per cent of the year, low energy LED lighting where natural light doesn’t reach, and on-site recycling.

Much of the inside of the futuristic building will also be made of glass with stone-coloured walls to add to the building's natural-looking design, pictured. The 175-acre Silicon Valley site near the 280 Highway will house 13,000 staff

Not all of the parking spaces will be hidden. The parts of the multi-storey car park that will be on show, according to this latest image from Apple, will be covered in plants and greenery to help the concrete structure blend in

‘This will be one of the most environmentally sustainable developments on this scale anywhere in the world,'’ said Apple’s Whisenhunt.



In the centre will be an enclosed arboretum and orchard complete with thousands of fruit, oak, and olive trees according to the San Jose Mercury-News.



‘We love California, and by adding over 2,500 new and indigenous trees that truly belong here,’ Oppenheimer said, ‘we're bringing back the beautiful orchards that once made up this valley.’

Campus 2 was designed by Sir Foster's firm Foster and Partners. The architectural experts also designed Wembley Stadium, London City Hall and The Gherkin.

'The concept of the building,' Oppenheimer said, 'is collaboration and fluidity. It'll provide a very open-spaced system, so that at one point in the day you may be in offices on one side of the circle and find yourself on the other side later that day.'

Apple has also factored in a 90,000-square-foot cafeteria, part of which is pictured. It will cover at least two storeys of the predominantly glass building and will feature oak tables and chairs The cafeteria will also feature an outside dining and picnic area, pictured. Apple's Campus 2 additionally comes with a fitness centre in the northern part of the building

Apple’s current office building at 1 Infinite Loop will remain and the new offices down the road will be built in addition to the current offices, which house around 2,600 workers.



When Jobs first presented the plans in 2011, he said his firm was 'growing like a weed.’



'We do have a shot at building the best office building in the world,’ he said. ‘I really do think architecture students will come here to see this.'

Employees will additionally be given a 90,000-square-foot cafeteria that connects to an outside dining and picnic area. This will be a short work from the fitness centre in the north of the building.



















