GLASS ON THE WATER

For the new Apple store in Singapore, architecture office Foster + Partners created a glass globe floating on the water.

Foster + Partners realized the new Apple store in Singapore, alongside the Moshe Safdie-designed Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Accessed via a 45-meter-long underwater tunnel from the nearby shopping complex, the store is surrounded on all sides by the bay, creating the impression that it is floating.

The store's main space is an open-plan area within the 30-meter-diameter, self-supporting glass and steel dome. The structure is made from 114 pieces of glass with 10 narrow, steel vertical mullions for structural support. Customers within the store have 360-degree views across the Marina Bay to the surrounding city.

Within the glass dome, ten trees, and a series of concentric light sunshade rings have been built to provide shading within the structure. These rings rise to the top of the dome where an oculus has been created that is reminiscent of the famous Pantheon in Rome.

Photography: © Apple, Finbarr Fallon, Fabian Ong