WORLD DESIGN / APPLE’S NEW (i)SLAND STORE

WHAT GOES ROUND.

Here’s a mini round-up significant round architecture from around the world.  Let’s start with the news. 

New. Emerging from something out of a Philip Dick sci-fi novel*, Apple’s new store rises from an urban lagoon in Singapore’s Marina Bay.  Designed by Brit architects Foster + Partners, the (i)sland is reached by a bridge and an underwater tunnel from a nearby shopping mall.  Opening soon.

*   “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” A.k.a. the film Blade Runner.

Newish. The five-year old San Diego Public Library isn’t a perfect sphere but San Diegans are happy with architect Rob Wellington Quigley’s nine-story library with a 3-story domed reading room.

Vintage. The mid-century checks in with Frank Lloyd Wright’s round cup of coffee a.k.a. New York City’s Guggenheim Museum, one of the largest museums in Manhattan.

IMAGES.

The Orb by Apple, a round (i)sland design in Singapore Bay

San Diego's brilliant new Main Library by architect Rob Wellington Quigley

Frank Lloyd Wright, Hilla Rebay, and Solomon R. Guggenheim with a model of the building. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives. New York, NY.  Ms. Rebay was the museum’s first director, 1959.

Guggenheim’s “roundness” is evident in these construction photos from 1956-1959.

ALSO:

Nine examples of recent round architecture from DeZeen.

Click here.