Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating

Apple’s first-ever spherical-shaped store is an architectural marvel that offers an unobstructed view of the surrounding bay.

- Renee Batchelor

When news broke of the third-ever Apple store opening in Singapore, a single image went viral — that of an almost neo-futuristic, tinted glass dome with the distinctive Apple logo in red projected on the front. The dome seemed to float upon the water in Marina Bay, and the closer you got to it, the more apparent its breathtaking scale became.

From the outside, the store seemed to upend all the expectations of what an Apple Store should look like, while at the same time fitting seamlessly into the design of the surrounding The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. T Singapore spoke to Chris Braithwaite, the senior director of worldwide retail design at Apple to find out more about the concept and design features of what has quickly established itself as one of Apple’s most unique stores.

According to Braithwaite the concept of the store was based on a simple idea. “What we imagined was a clear bubble floating on the water,” he says. While the idea could be perfectly described by this simple concept, the execution it required was tremendous.

The dome, which has a 30m diameter and is 70m tall, was the first of its kind in terms of both its shape and floating structure. Inspired by the architecture and the incredible landscape of the Marina Bay, the store was designed to offer spectacular 360-degree views of the surrounding bay area. Built over what was the former South Crystal Pavilion at the Shoppes at the Marina Bay Sands, the building turned out to be more challenging to bring from concept to reality than they had anticipated.