Inside Apple's 'Mothership' Headquarters

Information about tech giant Apple's proposed new headquarters has been somewhat thin on the ground, though, as is standard with any Apple news, has been widely-circulated.

The company has now revealed new artist's renderings of the 2.8 million square foot complex, envisaging a utopian structure in a verdant man-made forest in Cupertino, California.

Apple's late founder Steve Jobs originally championed the complex before his passing, describing what he imagined would be "the best office building in the world."

The new images show, for the first time, the space port-like entrance to the development's subterranean parking lot, a cavernous cafeteria, and the glass pavilion that will serve as the entrance to a new underground auditorium.

Approved by Cupertino city officials last month, it will sit on a 176-acre plot, housing some 13,000 employees over 4-storeys.

With architecture headed up by Sir Norman Foster, the acclaimed master of innovation and green champion behind London's 'Gherkin' building and the Millau Viaduct in Southern France, it has been described in an official presentation as "one of the most environmentally sustainable projects on this scale anywhere in the world." Natural ventilation and radiant cooling mean that the spaceship won’t need air conditioning for some 70 percent of the year.

Critics have expressed skepticism over the functionality of such a stubbornly unconventional circular floor plan. The increasingly flexible, reconfigurable nature of modern workspaces doesn't lend itself well to such rigidity, according to some. The lack of a central meeting space that team members can naturally congregate in has also come under scrutiny.

Apple insists, however, that the floorplan will promote collaboration.

The complex is due for completion in 2016.