Apple's new headquarters in Cupertino, California, is on a 175-acre site and is often described as a spaceship. But the building, which was designed by Sir Norman Foster, looks more like a machine that, when activated by some mad scientist, will generate a massive black hole in Cupertino. Anything with imagination will be sucked into it and lost forever. This is certainly the architecture of "decline and fall."

Apple Park is supposed to be futuristic, but as you look and drive around (walking is impossible in this ugly suburb), you get the impression that this is not a new beginning but the end of something that was once huge and invincible. There is no future to be found here.

All you can see from the entrance, or over a fence, or rising above drought-resistant plants, is the history of something that came, conquered, made loads of money, and finally ran out of good ideas. The headquarters, which has more parking spaces than offices, also marks the end of suburban corporate architecture. There is nothing beyond the point of this campus. Once you reach it, you make a U-turn and return to the city.