How Jony Ive Masterminded Apple’s New Headquarters
wsj.com
wsj.com
for example, the article suggests ive wants movement to be at the core of the workplace. how does endless seas of rectangles promote movement?! just look at those pictures! there is not a single design element that isn't founded upon a rectangle other than the overall building shape, which has little effect on the internal use. every single picture screams monolith, which is the last word i would associate with movement. the pictures and environment tell me a story of grids, crowded with clusters of people. the design says "this will be a very noisy place, both audibly and visually". nothing in the design promotes movement or separation or any concept really.
and ive always seems to childishly defend his designs, where he basically responds with "you just don't understand". and i like how the article states mastermind in the title yet gives very concrete examples to the contrary in the form of employee complaints and concerns. what was masterminded, exactly?
ive's design aesthetic is based upon gray, white, glass, rectangles. and nothing else. what an artistic snooze fest, even ignoring the actual usefulness of his designs.
Apple design makes sense if you see it as a cultural practice embedded in competing traditions of design (analogous to punk vs prog rock vs ...). Jobs himself placed great importance on developing his own charisma, a compelling personal vision. The fact that it's largely a functional vision conceals the seductive ideology behind it.
If you look at Swiss graphic design, like Josef Muller-Brockmann's work, it's often just sans-serif type in a grid layout on a white background. That can be interesting once you tune in to it. This probably sounds patronizing but I mean to say minimalism can be just as interesting and subtle as maximalism. Splashy, garish expression is not a long-term solution to the "snoozefest" problem.
Having said all that, sometimes minimalism is just a way of being chic (like an art gallery) rather than vulgar (like a muscle car). I'm definitely not saying it's better, but the superficially dull ingredients (straight lines, gray, rectangles) are not the deciding factor. Apple HQ may be a meretricious display of precision and expensive design independently of the superficial appearance.
If it's open plan how will that happen?
A delicious aspect of this design is how closely it resembles the English spook central:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/GCHQ-aer...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V4KSNOGfDN0/UTnFgqoi24I/AAAAAAAAAe...
Let's hope form is not following function here ;)
There is a notion that he spends more time with his family in the UK than at Apple. Seems like he retreated and I am not sure how big his inpact really is. He definitely had more influence on that project at the beginning.
Even if he is still involved with Apple, I, as a customer, couldn't care less about Apple's Disneyland (which is also about a different skill set, the one of architects and not CE industrial designers). I'd rather like to see Jony Ive working on the core of Apple and not its facility management, e.g. the Mac series, Mac Pros, native Apple displays, macOS' aging UX/window management, heck there's still plenty of work in the iOS/iPhone department.
Sure, spend billions in it, they have the money, but this article and others suggest people from Apple spent a LOT of time on the building at every stage instead of mostly leaving it up to building professionals like most other buildings are done.
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