Apple’s Piazza Liberty Store, designed by Foster + Partners, opened to the public last week. A dramatic fountain and a stepped plaza are the highlights of this store that sits in one of the most popular pedestrian streets in Milan, near the Corso Vittorio Emanuele.“A celebration of the joys of city life and embodying its dynamic nature, the signature water feature is an interactive, multisensory experience. Visitors enter the fountain through a glass-covered entrance enveloped by the sights and sounds of vertical jets of water that splash against the 26-foot high glass walls. An immersive recreation of the childhood game of running through fountains, the experience changes throughout the day as sunlight filters through the water, while at night the glass ceiling creates a kaleidoscopic effect, with the water falling down the walls, and its reflections traveling infinitely up the sky,” described Foster + Partners in a press statement.The project is a collaboration between the design team at Apple led by chief design officer, Jonathan Ive and Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president of Retail and Online Stores, and Foster + Partners.Stefan Behling, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, commented: “There can be no greater honor and responsibility than to create a new public plaza in Italy, whose piazzas and urban spaces have always inspired us. The fountain is an expression of child-like excitement that speaks to each one of us. In its simplicity, it echoes the idea of walking into a big fountain without getting wet, and the joy of being alive.”Jonathan Ive, Chief Design Officer, Apple, said “to work within one of Italy’s historic piazzas is both a great responsibility and wonderful challenge. We combined two fundamental elements of the Italian piazza — water and stone — adding a glass portal that creates a multi-sensory experience as visitors enter the store through a cascading fountain that seems to envelop them.”An amphitheater serves as the new social hub. “Defined by broad and sun-soaked stone steps descending below street level, the stage is backed by a second fountain’s wall of water. The entire plaza is newly created and paved with Beola Grigia — a typical local stone from Lombardy, and surrounded by 21 new Gleditsia Sunburst trees,” added Foster + Partners.http://www.blouinartinfo.com Founder: Louise Blouin
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