Exploring Apple Park: An impromptu (augmented reality) tour

On a fine Sunday afternoon when the weather was warm, we drove to Cupertino to visit one of the places I have always wanted to visit since I bought my first iPod: the Apple headquarters. Little did I know that the headquarters I wanted to see (the Apple Campus) has now been replaced by Apple Park (aka Apple Campus 2). Nevertheless, I wanted to see how the minimalist aesthetic of Apple products translates to the company headquarters. 

What I saw did not disappoint. It actually wowed me.

I was surprised that the campus was found in a suburban neighbourhood. It felt so peaceful to be there on a weekend. I'm sure the pace is more rapid on weekdays, with people rushing to work, but assuming that people living in the adjacent neighbourhood are Apple employees, the commute (or the walk) won't be too bad.

I learned that visitors are not allowed on the campus but are welcome to tour the Apple Park Visitor Centre. The garden surrounding the visitor centre is lined with olive trees and native shrubs, rivalling Salesforce Park's sky-high garden.

The Visitor Centre has four sections: a cafe, an Apple Store, a roof terrace, and an exhibition space. These areas are surrounded by transparent glass, which provides great lighting for the products showcased inside the centre. The timber ceiling with dim lights provides a warm contrast against the coolness of the quartz and marble surfaces. The architectural design simultaneously reminds me of brutalist architecture and Danish hygge.

The Apple Park Visitor Centre set itself apart from other Apple Stores by featuring a large-scale model of the park. At first glance, I was weirded out because it was a white metal grid featuring buildings (including the famous doughnut-shaped office space) and hills. Then, a staff member approached us with an iPad with an augmented reality app. This app virtually transported us across the street. We could see the green spaces surrounding the buildings, the solar panels lining the roofs, and the interiors of the buildings (we could tap any building roof to lift it). We could also change the time of day to see what the campus looked like during sunrise or in the middle of the night. 

It's an impressive piece of technology. However, nothing could beat seeing the real thing, which meant going up to the terrace and staring at the doughnut-shaped building across the street.