Apple’s iMothership

By 2015, if things go according to schedule, 13,000 employees at Apple Inc. will be able to jog to the office along a meandering path hedged by leafy trees and wildflowers. They will approach a sleek, saucer-like ring—four storeys high—that will be made of glass, with a roof almost entirely covered in solar panels. On Dec. 6, Apple announced the updated plans for its new headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.: dubbed the “spaceship,” it will be a 1,463-m loop nestled in a park-like campus, housing a 45,000-sq.-foot fitness centre and restaurant. From the nearby street, the building will be barely visible above the greenery.

The massive, futuristic design might seem over the top for most companies. But for Apple—the tech trendsetter behind the iPod and iPad, and now among the biggest companies in the world (with $81 billion in cash on its books)—it almost seems fitting.