The inspiration for this build started on facebook, the arckit facebook page to be exact. They created a model of the Apple store in Istanbul, which is a goregoues bit of design.
I just had to follow what they started and do my own Apple store. All the Apple stores are fantastic pieces of design but a particular favourite of mine is the new store in Hangzhou, China. It also happens to be another Foster + Partners design, like the Istanbul store.
Now anyone that knows me day to day will know that I'm a bit of an Apple nut. I do love my Apple tech, their great pieces of technology and stunning pieces of design. I have quite a bit of the Apple tech set, just missing a MacBook and an Apple Watch (things i'm working on getting, wanna have a complete set after all. No half measures here.) I absolutely love all things Apple really. The products are great and the stores are fantastic too, their design and just the way there laid out appeals to me greatly. There clean and slick and just fantastic. There's a bit of a joke in the household that i'd happily work for Apple just so I could be in one of those stores all day and its probably true, I would love that.
Anyway, I could go on and on about how I love Apple for ages and thats not what this is for, the point is I love Apple so it was only a matter of time before I ended up doing an Apple inspired building.
So lets get on to talking about the model.
The ground floor is pretty simple, a huge uninterrupted open space, giving maximum space to show those lovely Apple products. The only additions to the floor is a large kick in from the back wall, my original thought on it was comparing it to some kind of huge chimney breast (that would be one heck of a fireplace) There is a door into this giant chimney breast so I presume it is fact the store room, which would make sense. I also presume it extends up over all the floors as it would be a bit of a dead space otherwise, so to me it would make sense to use the full height of it as a store room. I could be wrong though. The only other additions to the ground floor are the staircases at either end. In the real store these are glass, which is awesome, in my model they aren't sadly. Arckit don't do a clear staircase part, their wall parts come in clear or solid so maybe clear stairs might be something they'll bring out in the future, who knows...
It's the first floor where things get interesting. In terms of layout it's the same as the ground floor, one big open space with the kick in off the back wall. The interest comes from how the floor connects with the rest of the building. It is only connected to the back wall the other three edges are all in from the boundary wall. This a creates a huge floating platform. This great idea of space is increased by making the first floor double height and as it's a floating platform the ground floor also benefits from this double height making it three stories high. Its one big open space with a platform floating in the middle of it. I very clever bit of design and engineering indeed.
In terms of the exterior finish like several apple stores it uses lovely crisp metal panels. Of course it has the nice big shiny apple logo. Then my favourite part, the nice black seams that mark the separate glass panes. I especially love how these lines are actually carried into the store to mark divides in the ceiling lights. Its such a simple thing but I think it adds something to it. Plus I think it appeals to my kind of ocd side that likes things nicely lined up.
You'll also notice that there is white arckitexture sheet on the inside of the top part of the glass panes. Now this is for two reasons. The real life building has blinds that move up and down the front pane so the white is there as I wanted to include that part in my model. Also by doing so I could partially disguise the white joint parts making it look more like an undisturbed glass pane. If I didn't have the blind sheet the white pieces would show and i really wouldnt look like the clean panes of the real store.
We're at the end of the post. So you know what that means...
Yup it's the build video. It was a shorter build this week so we're back to the three minute mark. If you're an apple nerd like me your instantly know why I picked the music I did. Plus if you watch tv your probably know why too. So enjoy.