Structural and facade engineering for Japanese Apple store, with a slender feature staircase and cantilevered roof.
Eckersley O’Callaghan provided structural and facade engineering services for Apple’s new flagship store in Japan, comprising a basement level and a grand first floor.
We were responsible for the superstructure up to detailed design, facade design and the feature staircase. We worked with Arup as the local engineer for the RC basement level and remainder of the structural frame.
The roof cantilevers a distance of 11 metres, and is unsupported by the glass facade. Tension rods were included towards the tip of the cantilever to preload the roof and control deflection.
The connection of the facade to the roof was carefully detailed to accommodate the seismic deflection, and a hybrid solution of partial connectivity was chosen to minimise the deflections transferred to the glass facade. The facade typology utilises fittings that are entirely laminated within the body of glass, resulting in a clean appearance.
The staircase was a particular achievement in slenderness of design. Detailed consideration was given to the acceleration of the structure under individual use and crowd loading. It was tested with a full mock-up in the fabricator’s workshop in Holland. The stair was then taken apart and re-assembled on site.
