Thursday, Apple welcomed the general public and members of the press to thescheduled grand openingof its breathtaking new flagshipretail store and amphitheater at Milan’s Piazza del Libertysquare. Italy’s seventeenth Apple retail location and its first based on next-generation Apple retail design comes with a dramatic glass fountain on the outside.
Angela Ahrendts, the iPhone maker’s Senior Vice President of Retail, as well as Chief Design Officer Jony Ive along with the company’s entire design team, were all in attendance to mark the significance of the country’s first next-generation Apple retail outlet.
Photograph by iDownloadBlog readerMarco Lodola
You can find photos showcasing the opening celebrations and the Piazza Liberty store itself on social media and in our previous write-ups linked in the opening paragraph at the top.
What I’d like to share with you next is an awesome architectural model of the Piazza Liberty store that I stumbled upon via the German-language websiteStoreteller.de(Google Translate) while researching this article. That blog post includes high-resolution photographs of the Piazza Liberty store’s architectural model, seen below, that I find pretty fascinating.
The store’s extraordinary structure uses crucial elements of the company’s next-generation retail design language, such as Gleditsia Sunburst tree, rows of wooden display cases, a massive video wall, a seating area called The Forum and the Boardroom, a business area.
This undeniably cool miniature was exhibited during the Open House Days in September 2017 by Foster + Partners, a London-based architectural firm that has helped create Milan’s breathtaking new store and previously worked on the ring-shaped Apple Park headquarters.
The piazza, the interior and the metal staircase were all cantilevered from the same impressive trademark Beola Grigia stone that can be seen used throughout Italy’s fashion capital.
The sales floor beneath the cozy outdoor amphitheater is accessible by walking down the staircase situated between a pair of waterfalls that form part of the larger fountain.
Photos courtesy ofGualtiero Frigerio
The fountain, realized by the revered water installation designers Watercube, serves as a tribute to the famous Italian squares which connect the city with its residents.
In the video embedded below, an architect and Senior Executive Partner at Foster + Partners, Stefan Behling, explains how he worked with Apple’s design team on the new store.
Fun fact: Behling spent four years working on this store.
In other Apple retail news, the Cupertino company has scheduled grand opening of a remodeled retail store in Walnut Creek, California atSaturday, July 28.
The remodeled retail outlet will be located a short walk down the road in the same space that the old store had occupied since first opening in 2003. Apple alsorecently movedSeattle’s aging University Village store to a more modern space nearby.
Image top of post viaDavide Bassani
