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    Ten Foster + Partners-designed Apple Stores

    With Apple opening its latest Foster + Partners-designed store in the newly renovated Battersea Power Station, our latest roundup spotlights 10 Apple Stores designed by the British architecture studio.

    Apple has been working with Foster + Partners since 2014, when the technology company and architecture studio initiated its almost decade-long relationship to complete a retail location in Istanbul, Turkey.
    Apple describes its first stores as looking “like nothing else”, but is now more focused on renovating and restoring buildings such as its Los Angeles store, Champs-Élysées store and Rome flagship.
    “I think that the evolution of retail for Apple is really interesting – starting with very bold statement with stores that look like nothing else,” said Bill Bergeron Mirsky, a global retail design lead at Apple, at the opening of the brand’s Battersea Power Station store.
    “And then over time, you move to the Apple Store being very ubiquitous. And now it’s come around to being a responsibility approach,” he continued. “As we see the rise of Apple in the world and the importance people place on the brand and the values that it represents.”

    With Apple now having stores in 526 locations across the world Dezeen has selected 10 striking recent stores from its archive:

    Battersea Power Station, UK, 2023
    Apple’s most recently opened store is located within the newly renovated Battersea Power Station in London, which marks the technology company’s 40th UK store.
    The store is set on the ground floor of the shopping centre within the power station’s 1930s Turbine Hall A. The interior was organised around four original brick columns and beneath steel roof supports that were left exposed.
    Find out more about Battersea Powerstation Apple store ›

    Mumbai, India, 2023
    India’s first flagship Apple Store contains a wooden canopy made from 450,000 hand-crafted oak elements that form 1,000 triangular ceiling tiles.
    The walls of the store were made from stone sourced from Rajasthan and have a fine grain that is meant to convey the texture of Georgette fabric. It was enclosed by two eight-metre-high glass walls that allow light to flood the double-height interior.
    Find out more about Mumbai Apple store ›
    Photo by Nigel YoungBrompton Road, UK, 2022
    An arched timber ceiling with seven-metre tall interiors defines the Brompton Road Apple store in west London. The arched timber ceiling mirrors the profile and shape of the window bays located at the facade of the building.
    The studio removed a mezzanine level from the shop interiors and incorporated six Castagna stone columns, four Ficus trees and a terrazzo floor made from castor oil resin, aggregate and recycled glass.
    Find out more about Brompton Road Apple store ›
    Photo by Nigel YoungAbu Dhabi, UAE, 2022
    Apple’s Abu Dhabi store on Al Maryah Island was built on top of a raised podium and surrounded by a stepped waterfall around all of its four sides.
    The podium the building is set on is pyramid shaped and constructed from black granite stone. The store is accessed via two bridges that extend over the water feature from a waterfront promenade.
    Find out more about Abu Dhabi Apple store ›
    Photo by Nigel YoungLos Angeles, US, 2021
    In Downtown Los Angeles, Foster + Partners worked with Apple to renovate a historic 1920s, baroque revival-style movie theatre that was designed by American architect S Charles Lee in 1927.
    The sensitive renovation of the formerly abandoned theatre saw the studio restore its corner clock tower, terracotta facade, exterior canopy, and grand entry hall that is complete with bronze handrails and marble columns.
    Find out more about Los Angeles Apple store ›
    Photo is by Nigel YoungIstanbul, Turkey, 2021
    Two large travertine walls flank the interior of Istanbul’s Bagdat Caddesi Apple store. Benefitting from a column-free interior encompasses two levels with a sunken double-height space at its rear.
    The building is set back from the street and appears to be a single-storey structure as a result of its sunken lower level. The structure was topped with a large overhanging roof.
    Find out more about Istanbul Apple store ›

    Via Del Corso, Italy, 2021
    Another restoration project saw Foster + Partners convert and restore a historic palazzo in Rome, which is located in the centre of the Italian city.
    Palazzo Marignoli was constructed between 1873 and 1878 and served as a home for Italian politician Marquis Filippo Marignoli. Foster + Partners wanted to celebrate the building’s history by restoring and highlighting its grandeur and historic features. Hand-painted patterned ceilings and frescos were restored throughout.
    Find out more about Rome Apple store ›

    Singapore Apple, Singapore, 2020
    Noted as Apple’s “most ambitious retail project”, its Marina Bay Sands store in Singapore is a spherical glass structure that is completely surrounded by water and accessed via a 45-metre-long underwater tunnel.
    The store’s interior is an open-plan space that measures 30 metres wide beneath a self-supporting glass and steel dome, which is made from 114 pieces of glass with 10 steel vertical mullions that provide structural support.
    Find out more about Singapore Apple store ›
    Photo by Bear and TerryBangkok Apple, Thailand, 2020
    Named Apple Central World, this Bangkok store is organised around a timber-clad column and a large overhanging roof that was designed to resemble the canopy of a tree.
    The store has a 24.4-metre diameter with a timber column that is clad in 1,461 slats of European white oak at its centre. The column fans out at ceiling level and adjoins the roof and extends past the glass perimeter of the store, forming a three-metre cantilever over the glazing.
    Find out more about Bangkok Apple store ›

    Miami, US, 2019
    An undulating white concrete roof, which draws on Miami’s art deco buildings, tops the Apple Aventura store that is located in Aventura Mall in the north of Miami.
    The structure is a boxy, two-storey building with glass walls and indoor trees. The roof of the store is made up of seven, precast six-metre-wide white concrete arches to form a barrel-vaulted ceiling.
    Find out more about Miami Apple store ›

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    Apple reveals Battersea Power Station store as latest “evolution of the Apple Store”

    Technology company Apple has unveiled its latest Foster + Partners-designed store in the recently revamped Battersea Power Station in London, which features updated fixtures and furniture.

    Set to open later today, Apple Battersea is the brand’s 40th UK store and represents an evolution in its retail design thinking with more of an emphasis placed on accessibility and sustainability.
    “We developed this material palette and this fixture set that is really trying to align with like Apple’s goals,” said Bill Bergeron Mirsky, a global retail design lead at Apple.
    “This material palette is new for us, it’s an evolution of the Apple Store,” he told Dezeen.
    Apple Battersea opens todayDesigned by UK studio Foster + Partners, the store is set on the ground floor of the shopping centre within the 1930s Turbine Hall A at the former power station, where the studio also designed the technology brand’s offices.

    The shop is arranged around four original brick piers and has steel roof supports exposed on the ceiling. On top of this base, Foster + Partners overlaid a revamped fixture set that Mirsky said “will become familiar over time”.
    Apple Battersea is the second store – after the recently reopened Tysons Corner store in the USA, which replaced Apple’s first ever store – to feature the redesigned fixtures.
    It features an updated fixture setAround the edge of the store is an oak framework of shelving that was developed with Foster + Partners.  The timber structure also defines a space dedicated to watches, a pick-up area and a redesigned Genius Bar.
    The Genius Bar has a counter for stand-up service along with a lowered area where people can be served sitting down. Along with its standard Parsons tables, which are made from sustainably harvested European oak, the store also has several lowered tables.
    The redesigned Genius Bar has a lower counter”We’ve thought about mobility issues across the whole fixture set,” explained Mirsky. “We have our traditional Parsons table with our standard height, but you notice that the tables in the back are varied and our new genius bar as well.”
    “We have a standing height because the team really prefers to stand and it lets them work with more people and then they can stand at the tables, but customers who want to sit or need to sit can actually use these slightly modified tables,” he continued.
    As part of the focus on mobility, Apple also increased the amount of circulation around the edge of the store.
    There is more space around the edge of the storeAlong with the timber framework, Apple aimed to replace other more carbon-intensive elements in the store with biomaterials.
    The floor, which was first used in the Brompton Road store, was made from aggregates bound together with a bio-polymer, while the acoustic baffles in the ceiling were made from biogenic material.
    The acoustic baffles and bright floor form part of a focus on improving visual and acoustic clarity in the store, with a dark band placed around the base of the walls to provide visual differentiation with the flooring.

    Foster + Partners designs Apple Brompton Road as “calm oasis” in London

    “Something I want to point out that is really part and parcel of the material palette, but also goes to our universal design, is the contrast in the store,” said Mirsky.
    “We wanted to make sure we have this really enhanced kind of navigation,” he continued. “So the floor is brightened – it helps us with our low energy – but it also makes it so that you can clearly see the table and the walls are defined.”
    The store has a dedicated pick-up cornerThe fixture set, flooring and ceiling baffles were also used at the Tysons Corner store and Mirsky believes the base can create a feeling of familiarity for Apple’s customers.
    “Each store is really dealt with as a unique circumstance Battersea has this incredible, incredible existing architectural fabric to work in,” he said.
    “We use the same fixture set at Tysons Corner in a mall setting in America which doesn’t have this sort of grand grandiose architecture, but the same fixture set can generate an environment that’s very familiar and welcoming no matter where you are.”
    The store is the latest to open in London, following the Brompton Road store that opened last year, which was designed to be a “calm oasis”. Other recently completed Apple Stores include the band’s first shop in India and a store in Los Angeles’ historic Tower Theatre.

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    Foster + Partners designs Apple Brompton Road as “calm oasis” in London

    UK studio Foster + Partners has unveiled an Apple Store in west London that incorporates stone columns, Ficus trees and terrazzo flooring.

    Located between the Harrods and Harvey Nichols department stores in Knightsbridge, Apple Brompton Road is the latest store designed by Foster + Partners for the technology brand.
    Foster + Partners designed Apple Brompton Road. Photo courtesy of AppleIts main entrance occupies the arched entrance to the former Brompton Arcade, which was created in 1903 to connect Brompton Road with Basil Street, with the store occupying two bays on either side that were formerly shops.
    A mezzanine level was removed to create a seven-metre high space that the studio describes as a “calm oasis”.
    It has a seven-metre-high ceiling”Apple Brompton Road is a calm oasis in a bustling and vibrant part of London,” said Foster + Partners senior executive partner Stefan Behling.

    “Customers interact with Apple’s incredible range of products and experience their personalised customer service in a unique setting which incorporates historic and natural elements.”
    Stone columns and trees define a central spaceThe shop is topped with an arched timber ceiling that mirrors the four-meter-wide arched openings on the building’s historic facade.
    A series of six Castagna stone columns, along with four Ficus trees in planters that double as seating, mark out a central spine in the space.

    Ten of the most appealing Apple Stores designed by Foster + Partners

    Timber tables on either side of the central walkway are used to display Apple’s phones and iPads, with accessories displayed in furniture built into the Castagna stone-clad walls.
    At the rear of the store, an event space is defined by a large video wall and a mirrored ceiling.
    The store’s terrazzo floor was made from a castor oil resin, aggregate and recycled glass. It marks the first time the plant-based resin has been used in an Apple store.
    An events space is located at the rear of the store. Photo courtesy of AppleApple Brompton Road forms part of a wider redevelopment of a block in Knightsbridge, which is being led by UK studio Fletcher Priest. Along with the Apple Store, the reorganised block will include seven shops, a 10,750-square-metre office building and 33 apartments.
    Foster + Partners, which is the UK’s largest architecture studio, has designed Apple Stores in cities all around the world. Recent shops include the conversion of Los Angeles’ historic Tower Theatre and a “floating” spherical store in Singapore.
    Photography is by Nigel Young unless stated.

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