Apple’s newest retail store boasts 50-foot glass walls, free-floating second floor

“If the new Hangzhou store is any indication, Foster + Partners are looking for ways to make its already pared down Apple stores even more minimalist,” Margaret Rhodes reports for Wired. “But in doing so, they’re pushing the limits of what can be done with modern structural engineering. Take a closer look: The Hangzhou store’s ceilings are almost 50 feet high, with no columns to be found. The façade of glass panels reaches from floor to ceiling without interruption, meaning Foster + Partners had to push well beyond their previous feats in glass manufacturing to get 11 seamless panes. (By contrast, the glass cube that leads to Apple’s heavily trafficked subterranean Fifth Avenue store in New York is 32 feet tall, and the curved glass entrance to the store’s Shanghai store is 40 feet in height. The Cupertino campus itself will use enormous glass panels that are curved.)”

Apple Store Hangzhou

 
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15 Comments

      1. You are both mistaken. The future never arrives. It’s always the present, but living in the present is actually really hard to do, because the time it takes to make that thought, that present moment already passed.

        1. The more perspective we gain, the more angles from which we view situations, the better we can understand it. We also all have blindspots. I depend upon a lot of other people to help fill in mine. (Hi Glenda dahling and associated pals!) We are a social species. We all contribute to the whole. We are stronger together than apart, and so forth. 😀

  1. When I worked at an Apple store I was always complaining that the workplace needed more natural light. Sadly, that store still has no natural light coming into it, but it is nice to see Apple doing this for some of their stores. At least they are trying.

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