Foster + Partners does not stop surprising us, near to finish the Apple campus in Cupertino, California and to open its own foundation in Madrid, Foster + Partners have put into operation one of the largest kinetic structures in the world.

The kinetic structure of the Foster + Partners study is made up of 18 motorized carbon fiber "wings", which are able to close or open, with its 1200 kilos of weight, in just one minute.

Description of the project by Foster + Partners

Apple Dubai Mall is reinventing the traditional introverted idea of mall-based retail as a more outward looking experience that engages with the spectacle of urban life. Its design is a highly innovative response to the culture and climate of the Emirates, while also demonstrating Apple’s pioneering ambition to create inspirational civic spaces for all.

Located in Dubai Mall – one of the most visited urban centres in the world, attracting over 80 million visitors every year since 2014 – the new Apple Dubai Mall occupies the most pivotal position in the city, alongside the iconic Burj Khalifa and overlooking the famous Dubai Fountains. Spanning over two floors, it embraces the theatre of the fountains with a sweeping 186-foot (56.6 metre) wide and 18-foot (5.5 metre) deep terrace – a first for any Apple Store – with unparalleled views of the spectacular setting and the incredible choreographed display.

Stefan Behling, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners said: “The design of Apple Dubai Mall is about creating an exceptional architectural and social experience for visitors, bringing to the fore new ideas about the evolving role of Apple Flagships in the community. I am sure Apple Dubai Mall will become a true people’s place.”

The design of Apple Dubai Mall is a continuing collaboration between the Apple design team under the leadership of Jony Ive and Foster + Partners. It is a celebration of the sun, using the abundant daylight to create a special ambience within. Reinterpreting the traditional Arabic Mashrabiya, innovative, ‘Solar Wings’ gently shade the outside terrace during the day and open majestically during the evening to reveal the ‘best seat in the house’ with a breath-taking view of the waterside promenade and fountains. With their movement path inspired by a falcon spreading its wings, the ‘Solar Wings’ are in itself a theatrical experience – an integrated vision of kinetic art and engineering. The wings have been carefully crafted to inspire delight, a delicate combination of form and function.

Made entirely of lightweight carbon fibre, each wing has multiple layers of tubes forming a dense net. Following an in-depth study of sun angles, the rods have been distributed in higher concentration where the solar radiation is the most intense over the year. The unique pattern allows clear views out for people standing on both levels of the store, and the sunlight streaming through the wings casts dappled shadows deep into the interior.

“The opening and closing of these majestic Solar Wings is analogous to a delicate ballet recital – but on a monumental scale. In some ways it is a very spiritual experience, with the sun streaming through them and creating the most delicate and beautiful patterns of light and shade – a seamless blend of technology and culture." Behling added.

Access to the store is through full height, glazed pivoting doors on both levels, directly from Dubai Mall. The Avenue, a specially designed area for accessories display, on the lower level along with Apple’s signature display tables sits in the midst of a grove of trees, creating a calm environment to experience Apple’s latest products. Apple Dubai Mall will also launch Apple’s new global in-store experience, ‘Today at Apple’ –  where New Creative Pros, the liberal arts counterpart of Apple’s technical Geniuses, will offer individual advice and training on photography, filmmaking, art and design and more.

The new shaded terrace features nine substantial trees within large planters incorporating seating for visitors to sit, relax and enjoy the view. The planters will rotate mechanically to ensure that the trees receive even sunlight. The terrace will offer the communities of Dubai a new vantage point – furthering Apple’s commitment to the communities they are part of.

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Norman Foster is considered by many to be the most prominent architect in Britain. He won the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2009 Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes Prize.

Lord Foster rebuilt the Reichstag as a new German Parliament in Berlin and designed a contemporary Great Court for the British Museum. He linked St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Modern with the Millennium Bridge, a steel footbridge across the Thames. He designed the Hearst Corporation Building in Manhattan, at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue.

He was born in Manchester, England, in 1935. Among his firm’s many other projects are London’s City Hall, the Bilbao Metro in Spain, the Canary Wharf Underground Station in London and the renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

In the 1970s, Lord Foster was one of the most visible practitioners of high-tech architecture that fetishized machine culture. His triumphant 1986 Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building, conceived as a kit-of-parts plugged into a towering steel frame, was capitalism's answer to the populist Pompidou Center in Paris.

Nicolai Ouroussoff, The Times’s architecture critic, has written that although Lord Foster’s work has become sleeker and more predictable in recent years, his forms are always driven by an internal structural logic, and they treat their surroundings with a refreshing bluntness.

Awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts 2009.

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Published on: May 4, 2017
Cite: "Opens to visitors one of the world’s largest kinetic art installations. Apple Dubai Mall by Foster + Partners " METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/opens-visitors-one-worlds-largest-kinetic-art-installations-apple-dubai-mall-foster-partners> ISSN 1139-6415
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