Recently,
I found myself looking at photographs of the Apple Store in New York
city. From a design standpoint, the Apple Store is a marvelous
innovation, just like the product design of the famous brand. In a city
that is famous for being big and fast and loud, the Apple store makes
its presence felt by being stoic and quiet. It is a perfect example of
design consistency — — the design ethos of Apple products being
brilliantly translated into architectonics.
This
prompted me to begin to take a second look at Apple as a business. I had
been familiar with the brand, but had never investigated it from a
formal design standpoint before this.
Needless
to say, The Apple brand prides itself on being all about design. From
the glass cube above the plaza of the Store, to the structural glass
stair reminiscent of high modernism, leading down to the simple, clear
layout of the store below. Everything about the store says “Apple”.
This
attitude of balance and maturity and attention to detail also spills
over into the conduct of their staff. The employees are all very
enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. You never feel intimidated. The
space is engaging, and tells you everything you need to know about the
brand without reading a single brochure.
And
these musings leads one to think — — what is the architectural
equivalent of a brand like Apple — — that integrates impeccable design
with high quality customer service and a high degree of rapport with
clients?
It
is a good reminder for us architects to continuously remember to look
to other industries every now and then — — to learn how the best of the
best build successful products, services, designs and entire businesses.
We must take what we learn and apply the lessons to our own
architectural practice. And it certainly is intriguing that students of
architecture can broaden their understanding of our profession by
visiting, reading about, and naturally being able to learn about core
design principles in a cross disciplinary manner.
