Some of the employees at Apple have recently relocated to the company’s new headquarters in Cupertino. However, the design of Foster and Partners didn’t rise up to the expectations of the tech giant’s workers. The new campus looks awesome from the outside, resembling a flying saucer or an alien spaceship just ready to take off. It seems like this design is truly a fit for the world’s leading hi-tech company.
Photography: Matthew Roberts
However, this is not the case on the inside. To their distaste, the employees, who have moved in, claim that the open-plan layout is too distracting. Contrary to the cubicles and offices, to which the staff was used in the old location, the new interior is pushing some of them to quit their jobs.
The construction process of Apple Park lasted for eight years and cost $5 billion. Apple Park started receiving some of the company’s 12,000 employees last April. The rest of the staff are due to move in by the end of the year, after the completion of the edifice.
Photography: Matthew Roberts
The Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa created custom-made pieces of furniture for the new venue. The campus also contains soundproof areas as well as large white oak working tables. There is a total of 320 pods throughout the 4-storeys that constitute Apple Park.
John Gruber is the founder of “Daring Fireball”- a website that discusses Apple news, issues, and products. The blogger said he had received many email protests from Apple workers who are seriously considering the unfavorable working atmosphere at the new headquarters. The complaints revolved around the vast open working areas called the “pods”. Rumor has it that Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice-president of hardware technologies, is objecting to the new working situation as well.
Courtesy of Foster + Partners
Open-plan working areas that were fashionable in the 1990s are now proving inefficient. The ability of the workers to concentrate on their work decreases due to the constant disruptions. A better design would include different working place styles like private and semi-private, in addition to open-plan layouts.
