Although already managing five standalone stores in London, Apple sees plenty of potential and opened an additional retail space in the city’s Knightsbridge area. Occupying a prominent early 20th-century building on Brompton Road, formerly known as Brompton Arcade, the interior design has obviously been created by the San Francisco-based brand’s in-house design team, featuring pretty much all of the signature design elements. Upon entering the store, shoppers are greeted by twelve towering Sicilian ficus trees that line the seven-metre floor-to-ceiling windows and entryway. The seating at the base of each planter acts as a social gathering space for shoppers, blurring the boundaries between inside and outside, and bringing nature directly into the store. The terrazzo flooring is comprised of a plant-based bio polymers, the first of its kind in Apple’s global retail network.
The vast space offers ample seating where customers can relax and discover new tips and tricks to get the best from their devices. Like all Apple facilities, the store is powered by 100 percent renewable energy. But what truly stands out is the store’s impressive vaulted ceiling covered in timber slats. Visitors come through the central arcade which mirrors the dimensions of the original Brompton Arcade built on the same precise location in 1903. The store’s Forum, where free Today at Apple sessions provide daily creative inspiration and practical skills, features a first for Apple in the UK. The new Apple store offers the brand’s full range of products and service, including Apple Pickup, a click-and-collect system where shoppers can collect their items without having to wait around. And that’s not all. The store will transformed into an events hub of sorts on the last Thursday of every month, featuring a programme of alluring activities.
Apple
17-27 Brompton Road (Knightsbridge)
London SW1X 9LF
Telephone: +44 20 30893000
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
