Foster + Partners’ latest Apple Store might be its greenest yet, with eight mature trees surrounding the site and even more inside. The project is Singapore’s flagship store set in the heart of the garden city along the tree-lined avenue Orchard Road.
Like the London-based firm’s other creations for Apple, Apple Orchard Road features the strict aesthetic of the company’s iconic architectural design: a 120-foot wide-glazed façade showcases activity inside, while a clean and bright interior is lined with the brand’s signature display tables. A grove of trees with circular planters is used for seating, promoting a calm atmosphere as well as a connection to nature. This is all part of Apple’s new worldwide store identity, creating public spaces for civic engagement, community hubs for learning, collaborating and relaxing in the middle of dense urban environments.
There are, however, several distinct design aspects that make the Singapore location stand out from other recently built sister stores. Foster + Partners added a 25-foot, thin white canopy that cantilevers out from the building and provides shelter from the city’s intense tropical rain showers and heat.
The store’s two-story interior also includes a piece of architectural beauty not usually seen in other Apple Store constructions. It is framed by large stone walls and two stunning curved staircases hand-carved in Italian Castagna stone. The architects refer to them as “warm and beautiful sculptured bookends to the grand space.” From the ground floor, the staircases smoothly flow up to the mezzanine level with deeply integrated tactile handrails. The Apple Store on Regent Street in London also features a sandblasted stone staircase that’s carved into the wall but more rigid in form.
Most importantly, Apple Orchard Road boasts the largest Genius Grove — a fancier upgrade to the Genius Bar — in the world. Located on the second floor, it is set back from the façade behind a glass balustrade, making way for the double-height atrium below. The space is lined with 12 Ficus Ali trees that create an “oasis of tranquility” in the most highly trafficked part of the store. The store also includes Apple’s widest video screen built to date. It’s set up in the Forum, where the company aims to host creatives as well as teach and entertain its customers.
While the Singapore store doesn’t feature movable solar-winged windows, it possesses an elegance and grandeur not found in many other locations. Each Apple Store may look similar to its numerous counterparts, but each is also creatively crafted to fit seamlessly within its individual metropolitan context.
Apple Orchard Road is situated in the greenest city in Asia as an extension of Singapore’s sustainably driven architectural mind-set. Like the new stores around the world, it aspires to create a new social focus and town square for the city while also incorporating more natural materials into its physical design. The shaded green orchard outside the store combined with the multilevel green space inside creates yet another record-breaking site-specific space by both Apple and Foster + Partners. Given their current roster of completed collaborations together, it’s fair to assume their next site will be just as outstanding.
Images via Foster + Partners