September 2, 2014 - 12:40 AMT
Drone video reveals scale of Apple's new ‘spaceship’ headquarters

Amateur video footage taken by a drone and uploaded to YouTube reveals the enormous scale of Apple's new "spaceship" headquarters now under construction in Silicon Valley, California, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The video shows a massive construction site, reinforced concrete foundations and what looks to be the gargantuan underground carpark that is designed to hide the eyesore of an outdoor parking lot.

The building, designed the British architectural firm Foster + Partners, is a four-storey, circular edifice built around a 60 hectare landscaped park. The complex will accommodate 12,000 employees.

The park at the core "would replicate the original California landscape, and parts of it would also recapture the orchards of [Silicon Valley's] past", Foster + Partners founder Sir Norman Foster told Architectural Record in an interview published earlier this year.

The late Apple cofounder, Steve Jobs, has said the aim of the project was to build "the best office building in the world". He was speaking shortly before his death in October, 2011 at a public meeting convened by the city council of Cupertino, where both Apple's existing headquarters and the new one are based.

Construction of the project, which Jobs said was inspired by the open spaces at the campus of nearby Stanford University, is not expected to be completed until 2016.