Hacker News Reader

Comment by yottabyte47 | Hacker News Reader

Interesting contrast to what Apple is doing to expand their campus. Colorful towers v. a giant doughnut. I can't imagine Apple's campus ever being a skyscraper. Allegedly Apple's new campus is only 4 stories high to give it a "human" scale. Now I understand what that means.

View on HN

Presumably, the trolly line - public transit itself being an icon of human scale development - will connect Amazon's campus to human scale staples such as shops and restaurants elsewhere in Seattle's urban fabric.

The problem with Apple's site is that they have to create human scale because of the inward focus of the campus and it's isolation from dense urban fabric. The designers took the Pentagon as precedent, but missed the fundamental role that being connected to an urban center provides in mitigating the negative effects of a form designed to contain secrets.

One can see Amazon flexibly leasing space on their campus to other companies, it is hard to see that with Apple's design.

Apple's building is a duck. Amazon's a decorated shed.

Ducks and sheds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Duck#Legacy

http://www.amst.umd.edu/Research/cultland/annotations/Ventur...

Spacious buildings can be a problem. You decrease the density of engineers / square foot, which reduces collaboration.

Of course, skyscrapers can also be bad, as it limits mixing. People only tend to interact with people on the same floor.

I'm not sure if that's the case. Pixar's campus is another example of a large, low building and it's central atrium is specifically designed to encourage random encounters among employees.

Apple's new campus is designed specifically to increase collaboration and random encounters.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com