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    Neri Oxman launches New York practice in Foster + Partners-designed studio

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    Designer Neri Oxman has unveiled a studio in Midtown Manhattan designed with architecture studio Foster + Partners that houses a production workshop and wet lab.

    Oxman unveiled the lab for her studio, Oxman, in a building originally designed by American architect Albert Kahn as a car manufacturing plant and renovated by Rafael Viñoly Architects to house shops and offices.
    Neri Oxman has unveiled a studio designed with British architecture studio Foster + PartnersOxman’s team worked with Foster + Partners to design a two-storey studio on the 9th and 10th floors of the building.
    The 36,000-square-foot space (3,345 square metres) is characterised by white-painted walls and columns, and is largely open – most of the dividing walls are glass. The lower floor features design offices, a library, kitchen and lounge, while the upper floor holds the wet lab and production studio.
    “Every detail of this project has been developed in conjunction with Neri and her team, reflecting Oxman’s holistic approach that spans scales and disciplines,” said Foster + Partners founder Norman Foster.

    “Both levels of the new studio have their own distinctive characters and contain a range of highly adaptable workspaces and labs, which enhance creativity and will become an epicenter of world-leading research.”
    The studio is located in a building designed by Louis Kahn and renovated by Rafael Viñoly ArchitectsOxman said that the design of the studio was meant to be open, flexible and technical to enable collaboration between the designers, scientists, architects and other employees who work there.
    She said that the space was meant to facilitate the actualisation of her The Krebs Cycle of Creativity – a rendition of German-British scientist Hans Krebs’ diagram depicting stages of energy generation in organisms.
    It is two storeys and contains a wet lab and central glass staircase”The dream for this building, this lab was to embody the diagram,” said Oxman.
    “The lab looks clean and nice on the inside, but inside, packed in the ceiling and in the ground, are conduits that are embedded for insert allowing access to data, to power, to gasses that feed the workstations – there’s 70 miles worth of Ethernet and an optical cable for cloud computing.”
    It is characterised by white-painted walls, glass dividers and wooden furnitureThe entrance space for the studio is a central atrium lit from above by panel lights in the ceiling that conceal the complex mechanical systems, including over 100 miles of colour-coded cabling to enable high-speed data.
    One side of the first floor holds the design studio where rows of custom-produced wooden desks run perpendicular to the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that overlook the high-rises of Hell’s Kitchen. A garden terrace with walkways and plants runs outside the windows.
    Conduits in the walls allow for access to data, power and gasses according to OxmanOpposite the windows run a series of private offices, completely lined in glass, with vitrines featuring samples of Oxman’s work, serving as visible dividers between each wood-backed space.
    On the other side of the first level, past a central stair, is a long conference table used for displaying work and models, and behind that a series of enclosed spaces for respite.
    It is meant to foster collaboration between employeesThe floating staircase was custom-designed for the space and has a single stringer at the top of the space and interlocking glass panels.
    The second storey holds a production workshop with robotic arms and 3D printers to fabricate shoes made from polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) – plastic-like molecules derived from bacteria.
    The interior is largely openAcross an atrium is a wet lab with custom Krion benches. Opposite the windows are a series of “capsules” that are heavily mechanized and can be used to simulate natural environments.
    According to Oxman, the studio is currently working on three primary areas: urban design and architecture, product design and molecular biology.
    The space was meant to facilitate the actualisation of The Krebs Cycle of CreativityOne of the biology products is a device called ALEF, which uses sensors to monitor biodiversity by training it to intake biogenic volatile organic compounds – described as “smells” – to provide data about environments.
    “From a biodiversity chamber designed to study and heal a struggling ecosystem to a ‘scent computer’ designed to concoct a functionalized fragrance with no harm to the environment, we seek to advance our understanding of the natural world while offering alternatives to methods of designing molecular goods that rely on monocropping,” said Oxman.
    “In fact, one of the most ecologically biodiverse environments in New York City currently thrives in our lab.”

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    The opening of the studio corresponds with the announcement of this endeavor, as well as the bioplastic shoes and a series of modelling systems for urban design based on what Oxman calls “ecological programming” – AI-driven modelling programs used to make planning decisions to optimise for nonhuman, as well as human, life.
    “The Lab’s organizational ‘parti sketch’ perfectly mirrors the organizational and operational logic of the company, enabling tight physical and visual connectivity across zones dedicated to hardware, software, and wetware design,” said Oxman. “In other words, one can design, build, and deploy a bioreactor in a matter of hours.”
    “We are a design and innovation company,” she said. “We operate across scales, across disciplines and application domains, to target and to heal three broken industries.”
    The opening corresponds with a biology product called ALEFOxman, who is a former tenured professor at MIT and led The Mediated Matter Research Group, is known for her experiments in novel materials for construction such as melanin and silk.
    Earlier this year Oxman was caught up in an academic plagiarism row with Business Insider reporting that her dissertation was “marred by plagiarism”. She responded to allegations in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, saying she “omitted quotation marks for certain work that I used”.
    The photography is by Nicholas Calcott
    Project credits: 
    Collaborators: Foster + Partners, Adamson Associates Architects, Sciame HomesConsultants: Benchmark Woodworking, Cosentini Associates, Front Inc., Hollander Design, Jacobs Associates, Pentagram, Percival Scientific, Inc., Persak & Wurmfeld, Shen Milsom & Wilke, LLC, Silman, Spiralis, Syzygy 3, Inc., Tillotson & Associates, TKO Project Management

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      “Proud Mancunian” Norman Foster to renovate Manchester United training ground

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      Architecture studio Foster + Partners has begun work renovating the interiors of the men’s first-team building at Manchester United’s Carrington training complex.

      The renovation of the training ground located around six miles from the club’s Old Trafford home stadium commenced yesterday and is being led by Foster + Partners founder Norman Foster, who is from Manchester.
      Born in Reddish in 1935, Foster described the design as capturing “the spirit of industry, grit and ambition that exemplifies both Manchester and Manchester United”.
      “As a proud Mancunian, it is a particular honour for me to see Foster + Partners given this responsibility,” he added.
      Foster + Partners will renovate the men’s first-team building at CarringtonThe project will include a complete interior refurbishment of the building, transforming it into what Manchester United described as a “world-class football facility”.

      Foster + Partners will initially focus on creating more streamlined interiors for the gym, as well as medical, nutrition and recovery areas.
      Renders show sandy-hued interiorsRenders released by Foster + Partners show sandy-hued, open-plan spaces illuminated by floor-to-ceiling glazing and filled with potted plants.
      “When we conducted a thorough review of the Carrington training facilities and met with our men’s first team players, it was clear the standards had fallen below some of our peers,” explained club co-owner Jim Ratcliffe.
      “This project will ensure Manchester United’s training ground is once more renovated to the highest standards,” he added.

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      The renovation is the latest stage in wider developments at Carrington, where the Manchester United Women and Academy building opened in October 2023.
      The Foster + Partners project is set to last through the next football season, although temporary adaptations will be made to the rest of the Carrington site to accommodate player and staff needs during the renovation period.
      The studio has designed the architecture for previously completed sports venues including London’s Wembley Stadium, which opened in 2007, and the more recent Lusail Stadium in Qatar created for the FIFA 2022 World Cup.
      The renderings are courtesy of Foster + Partners. 

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      Ten Foster + Partners-designed Apple Stores

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      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”

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      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.

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      “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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      Largest-ever Norman Foster retrospective opens at Centre Pompidou in Paris

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      An exhibition dedicated to the work of British architect Norman Foster has opened at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, showcasing drawings and original models produced by the architect over the last six decades.

      The exhibition, which according to the Norman Foster Foundation is the largest-ever retrospective display of Foster’s work, features around 130 of the architect’s projects including the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Headquarters, Hong Kong International Airport and Apple Park.
      The exhibition was designed by Norman FosterDesigns that informed Foster’s work are also exhibited, including works by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, French painter Fernand Léger, Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi and Italian painter Umberto Boccioni, and even cars, which the architect is passionate about.
      The exhibition, simply called Norman Foster, was designed by Foster with his architecture studio Foster + Partners and nonprofit organisation the Norman Foster Foundation.
      On display are sketches, drawings and models of the architect’s buildingsCurated by Centre Pompidou deputy director Frédéric Migayrou, the exhibition aims to showcase examples of Foster’s innovation and technology, his approach to sustainability and his ideas for the future of the built environment.

      “This exhibition traces the themes of sustainability and anticipating the future,” said Foster.
      “Throughout the decades we have sought to challenge conventions, reinvent building types and demonstrate an architecture of light and lightness, inspired by nature, which can be about joy as well as being eco-friendly.”
      Examples of Foster’s work are interspersed with cars that have inspired himThe 2,200-square-metre exhibition begins with a room dedicated to Foster’s sketches and drawings, a practice he uses to communicate ideas and log design inspiration.
      “For me, design starts with a sketch, continuing as a tool of communication through the long process that follows in the studio, factories and finally onto the building site,” said Foster.
      “In 1975 I started the habit of carrying an A4 notebook for sketching and writing – a selection of these are displayed in the central cabinets, surrounded by walls devoted to personal drawings.”
      Visitors begin the exhibition in a room filled with Foster’s sketchesThe exhibition continues in a large space with partition walls that separates it into seven themes: Nature and Urbanity, Skin and Bones, Vertical City, History and Tradition, Planning and Place, Networks and Mobilities, and Future Perspectives.
      The Nature and Urbanity section explores Foster’s approach to preserving nature by building “dense urban clusters, with privacy ensured by design,” the studio said.

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      Referencing a critic’s comment that the external appearance of Foster’s projects could be categorised as having a smooth “skin” facade or expressing its skeletal structure, the Skin and Bones portion of the exhibition showcases projects that illustrate the relationship between structure, services and cladding.
      In the Vertical City section, the studio showcases how it created “breathing” towers by designing open, stacked spaces.
      The exhibition features around 130 Norman Foster projects”We were the first to question the traditional tower, with its central core of mechanical plant, circulation and structure, and instead to create open, stacked spaces, flexible for change and with see-through views,” said Foster.
      “Here, the ancillary services were grouped alongside the working or living spaces, which led to a further evolution with the first ever series of ‘breathing’ towers.”
      It showcases projects spanning Foster’s six-decade-long career”In the quest to reduce energy consumption and create a healthier and more desirable lifestyle, we showed that a system of natural ventilation, moving large volumes of fresh filtered air, could be part of a controlled internal climate,” the architect continued.
      The History and Tradition section aims to provide insight into examples of historic and vernacular architecture that influenced Foster, while the Planning and Places portion explores masterplanning and placemaking in urban spaces.
      The exhibition is on display at the Centre Pompidou in ParisTowards the open exhibition space’s exit, the Networks and Mobility section displays examples of transport and infrastructure and leads to the final room, Future Perspectives, which exhibits concepts for future methods of travel and communication.
      On display are details of autonomous self-driving systems and designs for habitats on Mars and the moon that were developed with NASA and the European Space Agency.
      Foster recently spoke with Dezeen about his views on sustainability in architecture, in which he said “there are lots of dangerous myths”.
      The photography is by Nigel Young from Foster + Partners.
      The Norman Foster exhibition is on display at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France, from 10 May to 7 August 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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

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      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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