West Lake Apple Store in Hangzhou, China is Another Example of a Great Apple Store

Almost every single Apple retail store is a work of art itself that represent the company very well. The Zorlu Apple store in Istanbul, Turkey won both the Supreme Award for Structural Engineering Excellence and the award for best Commercial or Retail Structures at the Structural Awards 2014.

Apple’s new store at the West Lake shopping center in Hangzhou, China is another example of the wonderful design for an Apple store. Apple used a famous calligrapher Wang Dongling it’s first Apple Store in Hangzhou. This store was created with glass, steel,and light, with a design by Foster + Partners architects.

Every aspect of the store has been optimised, minimised and de-cluttered. The white ceiling, which appears as an opaque surface during the day, is dramatically illuminated at night – the custom-made lighting panels emit a pure, even glow, as well as absorbing noise.

The 15-metre-high volume creates a sense of space and calm within the busy store and city. It is divided horizontally by a dramatic cantilevered floor, which extends 12 metres from the rear wall like a diving board to create a 9-metre-high piano nobile. The extremely slim floor structure is only made possible by tuned mass dampers to eliminate vibration, and it tapers from 1.2 metres to just 10 centimetres. This gives the impression of a floating stage in the centre of the space – a new living room for the city.

Apple has been growing internationally very quickly the past few years with retail expansion and opening more stores across the United States and the rest of the world. After the recent success of the Zorlu store in Istanbul. Future stores like Apple’s L.A. Flagship building, 7th NYC store in Brooklyn and the opening of 500 partner stores in India.