Apple's new retail store in Hangzhou, China features amazing glass panels nearly 50 feet tall and a free-floating second floor.
The retail store was designed by Foster + Partners. The same firm that Steve Jobs chose to design Apple's new headquarters, Apple Campus 2. As noted by Wired, the company is 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.)
The cantilevered second floor is just 10 centimeters at its thinnest. It floats over the main floor without a structural support in sight. At the floor's anchor points, tuned-mass dampers keep footsteps from causing it to sway. This technology is more common in skyscrapers and bridges to prevent swaying due to earthquakes.
With each new Apple Store, it appears as though Apple is looking to bring a new level of minimalism to the design. “Every aspect of the store has been optimized, minimized, and de-cluttered,” said the architects.
Check out a few images of the store below...
Read More
The retail store was designed by Foster + Partners. The same firm that Steve Jobs chose to design Apple's new headquarters, Apple Campus 2. As noted by Wired, the company is 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.)
The cantilevered second floor is just 10 centimeters at its thinnest. It floats over the main floor without a structural support in sight. At the floor's anchor points, tuned-mass dampers keep footsteps from causing it to sway. This technology is more common in skyscrapers and bridges to prevent swaying due to earthquakes.
With each new Apple Store, it appears as though Apple is looking to bring a new level of minimalism to the design. “Every aspect of the store has been optimized, minimized, and de-cluttered,” said the architects.
Check out a few images of the store below...
Read More