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Stefan Behling, of Norman Foster Studio, is the architect who designs the Apple Store. That of Milan, which opens today, but also those of San Francisco, London, Dubai, Macao and many others around the world. Always recognizable as Apple Store, always different, with unique elements of the place where they arise. "There is no Italian place that does not have a fountain," he says, and Piazza Liberty now has his own, imagined by Behling as a parallelepiped of eight meters high that hides the 39, entrance to the store, two floors under the floor.
"It's a space rendered to the city – he explains – in a central but somewhat forgotten place". Ten years to find it and conclude the negotiation, four years of design, a year of work. "In reality, there is something of the Milan store in all the latest Apple stores, because it was designed before that of Chicago, for example." The idea is similar: open your eyes, leave room for surprise. In Chicago, to see the river where there was a front wall, to Milan to admire the water games of the fountain. In both cases, at the entrance to the store, there is a staircase where you can sit. To use free Wi-Fi, listen to music, chat. But also to attend concerts, meetings, film screenings: "In less than an hour, the fountain empties and becomes a scene with a multifunctional backdrop," says Behling. In this way, in a way, the idea of the Apollo cinema, which once stood here, is also alive.
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Steel stairs leading to the shop, two floors underground
Inside the stairs, swing a little. Seen from the bottom, they create a steel sculpture through which light circulates and refracts: from the shadow new intertwining and reflections are born, according to the inclination of the sun. This is a perfect shot for Instagram, as is the entire store, which even before the opening is already stormed by the selfie army. For the more ambitious it is a must of the video in front of the second waterfall, lower and wider, but the real emotion will be to go under the glbad of the main fountain, where the water gets breaks in kaleidoscopic symmetries.
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Inside, the store seems to be carved in stone; the walls and the floor are covered with the same material (Beola flamed), cut vertically for the walls, and horizontally for the floor. Behling gets angry when he tells details, like the air conditioning speakers made by modeling the stone, the speakers hidden in the false ceiling. All designed by him, all framed by Jonathan Ive, the head of Apple's design, which owes Apple's greatest hits, from the iMac to the iPhone. "Both explain the curves – for this reason you will hardly find a right angle". As in other Apple stores, as in Apple products, sophisticated mathematical calculations (Bezier curves, in fact) serve to create an organic connection between lines. In steel, glbad, stone. And in the wood of the big table in the middle of the meeting room: "We designed it, the chairs are from Naoto Fukasawa (" Hiroshima "for Maruni Wood Industries, Ed.). Always in wood, but more square and solid, the tables where the products are displayed, in the hall: they are the same as all the Apple Stores, the first one: "They are identical to those of the design center of Cupertino, where are born iPhone and Mac, HomePod ", reveals Behlig. There are also real trees ( Ficus Maclellandii Alii ), in large leather covered containers, where you can sit. "They are not used to clean the air, but they are not even decorative: they make the atmosphere better, with their humidity".
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Typical wooden tables from Apple Stores
Everything is very organic, natural, even discreet: and it seems that this store, like the others with the Apple brand (more than 500 in the world) has been doing more than selling gadgets, to witness to a world view. That of an elegant technology, easy to use, respectful of the environment and inclusive of all differences and nuances. "We want to leave the world better than we found it": Behlig quotes Tim Cook's mantra. "We believe this square is better than before.Thanks also to the close collaboration with the city of Milan, who has seized the innovative aspect of our project". Plus: "The contributions paid by Apple were largely used to fund the Peripheral Plan", as explained on Facebook Pierfrancesco Maran, Councilor of Urban Planning, Green and Agriculture of the City of Milan. "This is an important aspect that ties the neighborhoods together, only a portion of the revenue was used for the contract in the nearby Ragazzi del 99 that will be recycled soon."
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Under the fountain
But Stefan Behling is also the architect who led the Apple Park project in Cupertino. "We experienced many different forms – he explains – then, in nine months of confrontation with Steve Jobs, we simplified each time and we got closer and closer to the final idea" . It is not a circle, it seems, but a ring: "It represents a group of people embraced, as before a sports match, in which everyone is fundamental to the group. There is no one in the middle, there is no leader ". Originally, says Behling, we were waiting for something, but he does not want to tell us what. "Then we made a vacuum, a very Zen choice, in line with the ideas of Steve Jobs".
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