Today, Apple welcomes its first customers to Apple Miami Worldcenter, the company’s first mass-timber store.
Located in the downtown district of Miami, the store is interesting for its take on biophilic design. It’s made with regionally-sourced timber and other low-carbon materials; surfaces are soft and undulating, and light and shadow play off the curved perimeter roof. Interiors feel sculptural and dynamic, simultaneously nodding to the Art Deco architecture of the city.
Occupying a standalone pavilion, the structure covers a large central space accessed from glazed entrances. This is filled with Apple's signature tables on a floor made of biomass-based terrazzo, flanked by an oak wall system which incorporates service areas such as a pick-up area, a Genius Bar and a demonstration space for VR headsets.
Apple retail design lead BJ Siegel has said that, considering its size and the fact that it is free-standing, it was decided that locally-sourced materials should be used in the construction of the Apple Miami World Center. The store also runs on 100 percent renewable energy.
Various pains have been taken to connect the interior with surrounding green spaces. Upon entry, customers are greeted with flora inspired by Miami’s Latin American influence. Rather than putting plants in planters, the Apple Miami Worldcenter is set within a densely-planted public space. The roof, which it calls a ‘raised garden’, is also covered in greenery, which is visible from the surrounding towers. Although the building echoes the precise, geometric architecture of other Apple Stores, it is softened by organic shapes, warm tones and an abundance of plant life.
Siegel explained that biophilic design has been part of Apple's design principles for some time now – the company’s recently-launched store in Abu Dhabi, for example, is surrounded by a stepped waterfall and home to rows of full-height trees. That said, this has usually been the extent of it: large glass storefronts and interior planting. ‘The climate in Miami offered a different opportunity, allowing us to embrace the lush landscape and gardens of South Florida to create a densely vegetated urban public space,’ said Siegel.
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