Apple's First Flagship Store in India, Designed by Foster + Partners, Opens to the Public

Apple BKC, Apple’s first flagship store in India, is now open. The store occupies a prominent corner of Jio World Drive, a new retail destination that is part of the Bandra Kurla Complex.

Stefan Behling, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, said, “We are delighted to collaborate with Apple on their first flagship store in India. Apple BKC embodies the creative spirit of Mumbai. The design incorporates finely crafted elements, locally sourced materials and lush greenery - to stimulate the senses and lift the spirits.”

Greenery flows from the public realm into the store, blurring the boundaries between the outside and inside. The 8-meter-tall glass façade enhances this seamless connection between the generous double-height volume and the outdoor areas. A row of ficus trees, along the inside of the glazing, accentuates the store’s relationship with its landscaped surroundings.

At ground level, display tables and avenues feature Apple’s wide range of incredible products. The Forum hosts ‘Today at Apple’ and acts as a learning and event space with a large video wall. Framed by a colonnade the visitor’s eye is naturally drawn towards the striking feature wall, which is wrapped in a dazzling white acoustic fabric.

A striking staircase, made of stainless steel and two 14-meter-long glass balustrades, creates a delicate connection between the ground level and the cantilevered mezzanine. From the upper level, visitors have a spectacular view of the ground floor and the landscaped public realm.

The store is a symbiosis of Apple’s unique design approach with finely crafted elements and locally sourced materials. The sense of continuity between the interior and exterior spaces is emphasised by a hand-crafted timber ceiling that extends beyond the glass façade to the underside of the exterior canopy.

The elaborate ceiling is made up of a triangular grid of 450,000 individual timber elements, reflecting the unique geometry of the store. Each of the 1,000 ceiling tiles is assembled using 400 pieces of sustainably sourced oak timber arranged in a lattice woven pattern, inspired by the work of cane and ratan weavers found in Mumbai.

Two stone walls draw you into the into the light-filled space and provide a foil to the doubleheight glass façade which wraps around the building’s exterior. The stone, with is fine grain evoking the silky texture of luxurious georgette fabric, is sourced from Rajasthan.

Achieving LEED platinum certificate, the store is supplied with renewable energy from a dedicated solar array.

Apple BKC at night

The 8-meter-tall glass facade enhances this seamless connection between the generous double-height volume and the outdoor areas. A row of ficus trees, along the inside of the glazing, accentuates the store’s relationship with its landscaped surroundings

Foster + Partners

Foster + Partners is a global studio for architecture, urbanism and design, rooted in sustainability, which was founded over fifty years ago in 1967 by Norman Foster. Since then, he and the team around him have established an international practice with a worldwide reputation for thoughtful and pioneering design, working as a single studio that is both ethnically and culturally diverse. The studio integrates the skills of architecture with engineering, both structural and environmental, urbanism, interior and industrial design, model and film making, aeronautics and many more – our collegiate working environment is similar to a compact university. These diverse skills make us capable of tackling a wide range of projects, particularly those of considerable complexity and scale. Design is at the core of everything that we do. We design buildings, spaces and cities; we listen, we question, and we innovate.

The studio has established an international reputation with buildings such as the Hearst Headquarters in New York, 30 St Mary Axe, popularly known as The Gherkin, in London, Millau Viaduct in France, the German Parliament in the Reichstag, Berlin, The Great Court for the British Museum, Headquarters for HSBC in Hong Kong and London, the ME Hotel in London, Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, the Metro Bilbao, the Carré d’Art Nîmes, the sustainable Masdar development in Abu Dhabi, and research centres for Stanford University, California. Recent work includes the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Samson Pavilion for CWRU and Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Duo Central Park in Sydney, Apple’s headquarters in California, Bloomberg’s new European headquarters in London and the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. Currently, the practice is involved in projects such as the New Slussen Masterplan in Sweden, Kuwait International Airport, and 270 Park Avenue in New York.

Company website www.fosterandpartners.com.