ryanpanos:Apple Store Zorlu | Foster + Partners | Via The Apple Store in Istanbul’s new Zorlu Cent
ryanpanos: Apple Store Zorlu | Foster + Partners | Via The Apple Store in Istanbul’s new Zorlu Centre has been designed in collaboration with Apple and is the first in a series of new stores around the world. The project is also the first building to be completed by the practice in Turkey. The store is crowned by a spectacular illuminated glass lantern set in a reflecting pool of water – this provides the jewel-like centrepiece of the shopping centre’s crescent plan and acts as a light well, drawing daylight deep into the subterranean retail levels. The lantern is a deceptively simple, yet technically advanced composition of four rectangular glass panes, each ten metres long, held together without mechanical fixings or visible joins, and covered by a lightweight sheet of opaque carbon fibre. Below ground, the store is arranged over two levels and features Apple’s signature wooden tables, genius bar and stainless steel walls, which have been adopted as the standard for all of the firm’s retail spaces. The floors are connected by a pair of dramatic glass staircases, which are positioned beneath two skylights and supported by glazed walls. Daylight is carefully orchestrated throughout, as light is cast through the transparent stairs and store facade, and reflected internally by stainless steel surfaces. The storefront is constructed using nine-metre tall monolithic glass panes which, like the lantern, has no structural fins. -- source link