Apple’s building an old wooden barn at its ‘Spaceship’ campus — here’s why

Adorned with wood, glass, and polished metal, Apple’s new ‘spaceship’ campus has an aesthetic straight out of a Jony Ive sketch. It’s high-tech and futuristic, and set to span 2.8-million square feet and house 13,000 employees — and perhaps some farm animals.

In a recent drone fly-over video by Maverick Media, there’s clearly a team assembling a barn on the far corner of Apple’s campus. But what is an old wooden barn doing on Apple’s decidedly futuristic campus?

According to a 2014 story from San Jose Mercury News, the barn was originally built in 1916 when most of the surrounding land belonged to farmers. More recently, the dwelling housed Hewlett-Packard employees as a sort of picnic spot that played host to a few after-hours parties.

When Apple purchased the land, CEO Tim Cook assured Cupertino’s mayor that Apple intended to carefully take it apart, relocate it, and erect the antique barn in its new home. From the drone footage, it looks like Apple is doing just that.

The company reportedly plans to keep sports and landscaping equipment in the structure.