There is seemingly no limit to the manipulations that Apple store designers will make to ensure that the various elements of construction are aligned and pleasing to the eye. What looks like a simple retail storefront is actually a carefully designed, measured and constructed assemblage of glass, cement, metal and stone whose edges correspond. — ifoapplestore.com
18 Comments
Lordy. Symmetry causes me sneezing fits. [Honestly, I'm actually having one right now!] Would like to know why there hasn't been an asymmetrical production automobile. Like buildings or retail stores, there is no reason for cars to be visually symmetrical.
Once read a story about FLW visiting Philip Johnson's Glass House, and Wright getting up to move a sculpture from center to off-center in the living room. He said something like, "this sort of symmetry is reserved for God."
@ MD -- Great FLW story.
This is a really terrible drawing. if you draw the room volume as a single point perspective, then follow through with the tile and sidewalk lines for fuck sake. The end gaps between the glazing and the storefront perimeter are different widths. And re:tag #5, if this is the case, then maybe the drawing sh/could follow these alignments too.
the concept as described doesn't make sense to me. if for some reason you set the dimension of the floor tile as the "master element" that sets out the spacing for the alignment of every other element, why would you have a half floor tile on one side to allow for adjustment? personally, I'd pick the storefront glazing system as the master element.
is this indicative of the post-Jobs apple?
@subtect
Yes. Perspective should never be taken for granted. Imagine physically navigating a world without vanishing points. Everything would be on the same visual plane all the time.
I really don't know why this is an Archinect news item. Is ifoapplestore.com really a quality source (certainly not when it come to diagrams, as pointed out)... And really, big news flash: Apple pays attention to the way things are put together!
michael doyle,
trying driving an asymmetrical car really fast and see what happens!
re:asymmetrical cars -- one of the scion models has an asymmetrical back. first time I had seen it, other than an off-center hump in the hood like the old trans-ams...
http://image.trucktrend.com/f/10874134+w750+st0/163_0811_2008_laas_09z+2009_nissan_cube+rear_glass.jpg
subtect I was about to post that car , the Cube - but it's not Scion (which is Toyota) it's Nissan.
Isn't symmetry something we value in human bodies (exterior) then drape in balanced asymmetry with clothing and accessories?
the cube is actually quite the disappointment, the rear window is a conventional rear window, the only glass that wraps is the exterior so it's all just fake aesthetics...probably started off with the idea for wrap around visibility but at some point got VE'd out due to not being able to reconcile the structural C column with visibility, they probably just needed more talented designers but clearly lack those as evidenced by their latest "ju(o)ke"
I know volvo at some point a number of years back developed a truss like A column to increase visibility and reduce blind spots, I think it was on an early C30 concept
... shouldnt this be already a given in the architectural practice? its what you call meticulous detailing....
oh i almost forgot, because some people nowadays are just tooooo preoccupied of coming up with new magical concepts....
Another example of architects designing for architects. Looking for some kind of peer recognition, never thinking that the average Joe looking to buy an iPad could not care less whether this line lines up with the one on the opposite wall and continues the contextual concept of interior extending through the fenestration to the exterior suggesting infinite combinations of juxtapositioning dissimilar elements in space to achieve aforementioned contextual stability.
Essentially the stores are perfect since they are only an invisible backdrop, blank canvas if you will, that never compete with the product line. The detailing discussion is for academics and eggheads that preach imaginary design concepts having only built a Holiday Inn.
John, I think the average person *does* notice, perhaps subconsciously, when elements don't line up, especially in a minimal setting. As to whether those alignments reinforce some infinite-external-juxtaposing-whoopdedoo-whatever, well no, most people don't notice that.
And, you know, most people can't tell the difference whether a demi glace is made with pure veal stock or veal and beef stock together. So should chefs not bother to do it well? Or should they make something they would be proud to feed to their peers and hope that the masses will enjoy it and maybe learn something too?
really john? you'd give more respect to any-given-apathetically-designed-but-popularly-received-schlock over any-given-building-by-louis-kahn?
hard to respond to this without veering the thread into a discussion of whether there is value in architecture. maybe claim that apple is over-designing for a high-turnover sector like retail -- but questioning the value of something so basic as lining things up...?
any-given-apathetically-designed-but-popularly-received-schlock over any-given-building-by-louis-kahn?
I would.
From a 2010 perspective, Louis Kahn sucks. I said it. Chastise me all you want.
you've said nothing about louis kahn and everything about 2010.
Derek and Donna,
As I stated at the end of my rant, I think that the stores are perfect since they achieve what the client, Apple/Steve Jobs, wanted, a perfect backdrop for the product. The architecture does not compete with its mission to put the product at the forefront.
The biggest slam against Wright's Guggenheim museum was and probably still is, is that it is "too" great a space for what it is supposed to be. It is competing with the art. Visitors don't know whether to look at the building or the art. In the Apple store there is no confusion, the architecture serves its purpose by being subservient to the product. They are selling computers, iPhones, iPads and such, not promoting the building. Items lining up with other things is just a byproduct of our "need" as architects to instill order where none exists. Thank God Frank Gehry never went to that school.
Donna, the only time minimal applies to an Apple store is when it is on paper or when the built store is closed. When they are open there are so many people in there that only we, of the artistic bent, notice things that we notice.
BTW, I attended a lecture by Louis Kahn back in the day, and the first words out of his mouth were ..." I talked to the brick and the brick said, .... I want to be an arch ". Way too preoccupied with himself and his fifteen minutes than with the purpose of the building, but then again many architects put themselves ahead of the client, looking for a ray of recognition. Probably weren't hugged as children.
Lastly, how does one "notice" something subconsciously?
Derek,
Helmut Jahn is acclaimed as an almost genius, but the occupants of the State of Illinois building still cook in the summertime even though critics ooh and aah at his brilliant design. The sliding sheets of ice coming down the sloping glass in the winter time, do wonders for the pedestrians' blood pressure also.
John,
I'll bracket this to the part that's on topic, not because the tangents are uninteresting, but just for the sake of saving time. re: apple and their stores. your point seems to be that the architecture is best if absent, so that it doesn't distract from the lovefest happening between customers and the iGadgets. You are selling short the contribution of architecture to branding. not saying right or wrong path for architecture -- but this is the topic we're discussing, and the current trend. attention to design is a fixture of the apple brand, so it is perfectly natural that they would expand this out to the architecture of their stores as one of many fronts in their branding efforts. they clearly give a big shit about it:
http://www.cultofmac.com/a-look-at-the-redesigned-fifth-avenue-apple-store-in-new-york-city/108407
you could say that machining a laptop body out of a solid piece of aluminum is also an academic exercise, or the gimmick of an overbearing designer -- but they did it, and it's a widely repeated feature of their product.
I doubt many complain about the tokyo prada store getting in the way of shopping for clothes, but it is a feather in the cap of the prada brand. Same with so many other stores in that area of tokyo. Same with the competition between Mercedes and BMW to bring architecture into the brand. Same pattern happening again, and again, and again... but, you'd rather put architecture in the corner for a time out?
Derek,
We could bounce this one back and forth like tennis players and no one really would be right or wrong. Different people have different viewpoints about same things, think politics, religion, art, music, food, wine and architecture. Some like Pavarotti and some like Steven Tyler. Neither is right , neither is wrong, just different.
And no, no time out.
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