Apple Nagoya - Light Ceiling
Nagoya, Japan
Building architect: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Berkeley, USA
Engineer: Eckersley O'Callaghan Structural Design, London
2004

The Light Ceiling in Nagoya is a variation on the one designed for the Apple high-profiles store in London, which was opened in November 2004. The design is based on previous stores in the USA and Japan, and includes some of the already well-known architectural features such as the all-glass stair and bridge. Most of the existing high-profile stores have a skylight over the stair, but here, as in the Regent Street store, located inside a multi-storey building, it has been substituted by the "Light Ceiling".

Intended to evoke the sensation of arriving under a daylit canopy it uses 15 very large tilted planes of etched semi-reflective glass and the subtle contrasts in colour between different types of lighting to play with perceptions of inside and outside.

15 panels, each one approximately 3.9m x 0.75m, of smooth, acid-etched opaque and reflective glass are laminated with the back to a sheet of stainless steel. The tilting array creates lighting coves above for a two-colour double row of cold cathode lights, providing some flexibility in the tone of the colour. Intended to complement the visual impact of the stairs, the directionality of the tilt of the panels creates a dynamic effect as one arrives in the store, moves up the stairs and circulates within the upper floor.