14 DAY TRIAL // Following confirmation from one of Apple’s spokespersons that the Mac maker had, indeed, bought an additional chunk of land in the Cupertino area, the company is now said to have contracted famous British architect Norman Foster to design what is believed to become the "Apple City."
Norman Robert Foster is a British architect whose company maintains an international design practice.
As Britain's most prolific builder of landmark office buildings, Foster was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award in the Arts category in 2009.
Apple is known to have purchased $300 million worth of land from HP last month, in an effort to expand the campus housing its headquarters.
Slashgear now cites Spanish paper ElEconomista (Google translate) as reporting that the new campus is to be modeled after Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, and that it is dubbed Apple City, although there is no confirmation of the official name.
The campus will allegedly boast an underground road and an entirely subterrestrial transport infrastructure. The surface level will be green, according to the source.
A translation, provided courtesy of Slashgear, reveals that “The buildings which will house the engineers and R & D will also be multifunctional and will incorporate cutting-edge technology in materials and equipment as well as renewable energy resources.”
Foster & Partners has been working closely with Apple for the past few months to come up with the basic design and spirit of the “Apple City,” according to the two sources.
Neither party is willing to confirm these activities, yet Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling admitted that Apple’s current offices “are about to burst,” upon request for a comment on the matter.
Apple’s offices are located at Infinite Loop, a street encircling the six main buildings of its headquarters in Cupertino, California.
Each building has a number that corresponds to its single-digit address on the Loop. Apple's official mailing address is "1 Infinite Loop".