Gallery: Apple's Newest Store Boasts 50-Foot Glass Walls and a Free-Floating Second Floor
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Apple is opening five new stores in China, and this is one of them. Designed by Foster + Partners, it's a 50-foot-tall, starkly minimal glass box.
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The Hangzhou store is a showcase for what Apple and Foster + Partners are doing with modern structural engineering. This thin cantilevered piano nobile (seen above shoppers) doesn't have any visible suspension or support.
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“Every aspect of the store has been optimized, minimized, and de-cluttered,” say the architects.
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Even the bolts used for the staircase are precisely embedded within the glass steps, so that the staircase looks like it's floating.
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It leads to the upstairs floor, which the architects call “a new living room for the city.” A really, really nice living room.
