The world’s first Apple store, built from mass timber, has opened in Miami – with the tech giant’s first downtown store paving the way for one of the world’s largest retailers to build a new generation of all-timber stores. Designed by Apple’s in-house team, Apple Miami Worldcenter – the tech giant’s 534th store – occupies a standalone pavilion that continues the aesthetic of previous Apple Stores, all the while embracing the art deco architecture of Miami.
“Apple Miami Worldcenter is the first Apple Store with extensive use of mass-timber construction,” according to BJ Siegel, Apple’s retail design lead, who spoke to Dezeen before the grand opening on Friday:
“As a free-standing building with sizable spans, we wanted an efficient structural solution that could be sourced locally in the region and help reduce the project’s overall carbon footprint,” Siegel said. “We worked with a mass-timber vendor committed to pursuing an FSC certification, ensuring that the wood was responsibly sourced and contributed to a significant embodied carbon reduction.”
Perhaps the most striking element of the store is the trees and plants that surround the store, including the mass timber-framed roof, dubbed “the raised garden.” “Biophilic design has been part of Apple’s design principles for some time now – trees and plants, along with natural daylight, have always been important to our stores,” Siegel said. “While in the past, this has come from primarily the use of interior trees and large glass storefronts, the climate in Miami offered a new opportunity, allowing us to embrace the lush landscape and gardens of South Florida to create a densely vegetated urban public space.”
Inside, the new store is filled with Apple’s signature tables—some lowered for accessibility—and is flanked by an oak framework incorporating a pick-up area, Genius Bar, product shelving, and a space dedicated to demonstrating the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset: “The materials used throughout the design were chosen to limit their impact on the environment while creating an inviting space for customers…This includes biomass-based terrazzo flooring, a structural wood wall system, and particular attention to comfort and acoustics.”
The push to use timber (over steel and concrete) comes after Wood Central revealed that tech was amongst the fastest-growing consumers of mass timber construction – with Microsoft building the world’s first data centres using cross-laminated timber ceiling and floor sandwich systems.
In 2020, Apple—one of the world’s highest-valued companies—pledged to achieve carbon neutrality across its entire business and supply chains over the next decade. This includes low-carbon design, not only in producing MacBooks and iPhones but also in greening up its retail footprint— with each new store, which continues to add between 20 and 30 stores to its global network every year.
- To learn more about the push by global tech to embrace mass timber, click here to visit Wood Central’s special feature.