Dyson’s new Apple-style campus: Here’s what you need to know
Wiltshire is in danger of becoming the Cupertino of the Cotswolds after Dyson announced plans for yet another massive, Apple-style campus in Hullavington, not far from its current HQ in Malmesbury.
It's not the first time the engineering firm has built a Silicon Valley-type campus for its workers, but this one promises to be bigger, shinier and, er, techier. Here's what you need to know.
Read more: In pictures – Check out James Dyson's new £250m answer to the Googleplex
Dyson launched a £250m campus in September (Source: Dyson)
1. The numbers
The new 517-acre campus will increase Dyson's UK footprint tenfold, it said. The company currently employs 3,500 people in the UK, half of whom are engineers and scientists.
2. The campus
The new campus is on the site of the old Hullavington Barracks, first built in 1936 to house a flying training school, with over 100 aircraft and a civilian manned aircraft storage unit capable of storing another 400 machines.
The site was a base until the mid-1990s, and became one of the 12 to be sold by the Ministry of Defence last January. Dyson said it will restore the historic buildings on the site, rather than tearing them down.
3. The tech
Dyson is the UK's largest investor in robotics – so it's only natural that the new campus will focus on AI and all its accoutrements, developing technologies including solid state battery calls, vision systems, machine learning and AI.
4. The hiring process
The company has previously committed to spending £15m over the next five years to tackle the "dearth" of skilled engineers in the UK, including offering a degree scheme which will give engineers access to a "relevant alternative" to a university degree.
In January Dyson unveiled a cryptic puzzle to help it hire software engineers. Wannabe Dyson workers needed to solve the video puzzle in order to be invited to take part in a "pop up challenge" in which they had to solve clues left in various rooms.