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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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    Michaelis Boyd unveils apartments inside Battersea Power Station

    Architecture studio Michaelis Boyd references the 1930s and 50s in its design for apartments in London’s newly redeveloped Battersea Power Station.

    The London-based studio has planned the layouts and finishes for 253 apartments in the former power station, which is currently being redeveloped by architecture firm WilkinsonEyre.
    These include 119 in Switch House East, which has just opened, 98 in Switch House West, which was completed in May 2021, and a further 36 located in the yet-to-complete Boiler House.
    The show home features Heritage 33, one of two materials palettes developed for the flatsTo make the most of the available space, Michaelis Boyd developed more than 100 different apartment layouts.
    For the fixture and finishes, the studio developed two distinct materials palettes for the homes, referencing different aspects of the building’s history and architectural character.

    The first palette, called Heritage 33, takes inspiration from the 1930s, the decade when the power station was built.
    All homes feature Crittall-style glazed screens and dual-aspect windowsDark chevron-patterned flooring references the parquet found in the space known as Control Room A, which at one stage was responsible for poviding a fifth of London’s electricity.
    Bathrooms feature glazed tiles, inspired by tiles found in the power station director’s staircase, while walls are finished in subtle colour shades.
    The Heritage 33 palette takes its cues from the 1930sA second palette, called Heritage 47, offers a more contemporary feel, combining 1950s details with a modern industrial warehouse aesthetic.
    The style is more minimal, with lighter toned wood flooring and pale walls.

    Glass elevator for Battersea Power Station revealed in new visuals

    “The residences have a refined industrial quality to them,” said Michaelis Boyd co-founder Alex Michaelis.
    “We wanted to create interiors that would reference the power station’s rich history but also stand the test of time, for the ultimate experience of modern city living.”
    Chevron-patterned flooring references the original parquet in the power station’s Control Room AIn both palettes, details are designed to complement the building’s architecture. Kitchen tiles echo the exposed brick walls, while copper details nod to the more industrial elements.
    Glass screens and doors take their cues from traditional Crittall windows, allowing plenty of light to filter through the homes and offering residents more flexibility in their living spaces.
    Copper details pay tribute to the building’s industrial historyResidents also have access to a large rooftop garden located above one of the building’s historic turbine halls.
    “Looking forward into 2022, there continues to be a focus on the importance of outdoor space and a connection with nature,” said Michaelis.
    Glazed tiles reference the design of the power station director’s staircase”At Switch House East, large Crittall screens and dual-aspect glazed windows were designed to make use of natural daylight, encouraging flow between spaces and offering views out onto the riverside and landscaped courtyards and terraces, bringing the outdoors in,” he continued.
    “The open-plan layouts of these loft-style apartments also remain more relevant than ever, as we continue to design versatile spaces that will lend themselves to news way of living, working, eating and relaxing from home.”
    Switch House welcomed its first residents in JanuaryThe Grade II* listed Battersea Power Station was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott. It was in use from 1933 until 1983, and has been abandoned ever since.
    Numerous designs were proposed for the building over the years. Architect Terry Farrell suggested converting it into a park, football club Chelsea wanted to turn it into a stadium and Rafael Viñoly designed a skyscraper to sit next door.
    Homes with the Heritage 47 palette, like this one in Switch House West, have a more minimal aestheticWilkinsonEyre’s design will turn the turbine halls into a shopping centre, while other parts of the building will contain restaurants, events spaces and offices, including Apple’s London campus.
    The iconic chimneys will be refurbished, with one set to contain a glass viewing elevator.
    The photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

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