SA OpenProject 25正在报名 | Apple Store and Its Neoliberal Model

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OpenProject 25

Apple Store and Its Neoliberal Model

苹果店和它的新自由主义模型

课程介绍

关于当代艺术和建筑流通性的辩论，David Joselit 在《After Art》一书中提到了两种最主流的态度：新自由主义和原教旨主义。前者歌颂图像、构筑物的自由交换及复制，后者则认为艺术与建筑应当根植于具体的场所。

在全球化离岸生产之外，苹果公司遍布世界的体验店也在拓展着它的新自由主义模型。它聪明地把工业设计理念移植到了建筑设计之中，创造出凌驾于地缘因素之上的通用型设计方法，从而完成了“苹果店”从建筑物到工业产品的平滑过渡。

这项研究开始于我在普林斯顿选修的一门关于新自由主义的讨论课。我和搭档选择了苹果店的玻璃（后文将简称为“苹果玻璃”）作为独立研究的主题。整理完成的文章后来发表在了Room One Thousand: Timeless。不过，受到近期相关新闻的启发（比如墨尔本市民对Federation Square的苹果店建造计划的抗议，以及苹果新建成的总部大楼里的员工撞到玻璃并受伤等等），在征得了搭档的同意之后，我打算重启这个研究项目。因为我越来越感到：对于这种不断更新的社会性议题，我们应该需要更广阔也更即时的讨论空间。站在建筑师的角度，我们也许不能保持沉默。

需要明确的是：本次Open Project并非要对“苹果玻璃”进行讨伐式的批判性思考，而主要是对大量相互关连的“事实”进行收集、整理、表达和存档；它也不会是一份新闻调查报告，而是从建筑学本体出发来开启一段对话，尝试去定义苹果店、苹果玻璃在新自由主义进程中的位置。一个更长远的目标是，我们能够在OP的最后阶段建立一个公开的线上档案馆，只要苹果公司还没有倒闭，档案的内容就会持续更新。

In describing the debate over circulation of contemporary art and architecture, David Joselit in his book After Art introduces two dominant positions: “neoliberalism” and “fundamentalism”. While neoliberalists believe in the free exchange and reproduction of images and buildings, rendering both as a form of currency [1], fundamentalists posit that art and architecture are rooted to a specific place [2].

Aside from outsourcing and offshoring, Apple’s neoliberal model has been extended through the Apple Store’s globalization. As of May 2016, Apple has 477 stores worldwide in 14 different countries. What is more than obvious is Apple’s industrial design being applied to the scale of a building, one that favors reproducible universal design over context, and one that forms a seamless transition of building being from a uniquely constructed space to a manufactured object.

The initial research on Apple Stores actually started two years ago when I took a seminar taught by professor Christine Boyer entitiled “Unknown Unknown”,  which looked into the emergence of architectural issues in the past few decades from the perspective of neoliberalism. And glass in Apple Stores became the topic of our final independent research. Entitled “⌘C, ⌘V” ，the final essay, together with an analytical drawing, was later published in Room One Thousand: Timeless, thanks to the effort of my partner.

Yet it seems that this should not anchor the end of the story. News about the Apple Stores and so-called “Apple Urbanism” keep popping out recently - the outcry over the plans for a new Apple Store in Melbourne’s Federation Square, and accidents in which Apple’s own staffs were injured by walking into the glass door of the company’s newly built Apple Park campus in Cupertino designed by Fosters + Partners. As such these incidents continue to trigger public debate, the idea of updating and expanding our previous research on Apple glass starts to emerge.

This open project aims not to set up an arguement or critique over the neoliberal model of the Apple Stores, but rather to collect, arrange, represent, and eventually archive interrelated “facts”. It also shall not be misunderstood as an investigative journalism report, but rather the initiate of a conversation over the Apple Store itself as a piece of architecture in its process of neoliberal revolution. A further objective, if possible, is to build an online archive which can be updated timely and accessed by all.

Duration

5 weeks （07/23/18 – 08/26/18）

Number of Students

10 students, 2 each team. Only open to SA students

Requirement

Students with strong theory and research skills and applying for master of architecture degree or relevant programs 

Approach

The framework of this open project will be similar to what had been taken in carrying out the essay at Princeton. Students will be divided into several groups at the first stage of research, with each group taking a unique yet interrelated task not limited to the list below:

1. Tectonic Document Collection: Tectonic improvements in Apple’s glass

Media: Scientific paper, patents and trademarks

Contents: laminated structural glass fin, glass wall, and glass stair tread, spiral staircase supported with rod hangers, cylindrical structural core....

This is probably the most “boring” part of the project which involves large body of work in collecting and organizing documents, which may or may not be even related to architecture. However, it is where all stories begin.

It is suggested that we start our research from studying Apple’s glass. However, other architectural features such as its primitive form, aluminum panel, and luminous ceiling can also be brought to the table if students are particularly interested.

2. Architecture of the Apple Stores

This team will search for all documented information of Apple Stores: the built, the unbuilt(if possible), the demolished/rebuilt, and the to-be-built. Aside from basic information, architecture dimensions and details should also be included in order to build relatively precise digital model both as part of the archive and for further illustrations.

Another important work is to collect news about Apple stores, not only the ones found in architectural media, but also public media such as the Guardian and New York Times. We should seek for an efficient and indexical online archiving system, for as long as the company is still expanding, the story of its global Apple Stores goes on.

3. Field Research:  Apple Stores in your city

It is suggested that students go to the Apple Stores in their cities.  Physically being in the subject matter helps to build up both sensual experience and first-hand documentation.

4. Paradigmatic Analysis: the neoliberal “copy-and-paste” phenomena among Apple Stores in its full length of historical and geological spectrum.

Although the previous research has already developed a methodology, the final analytical approach is open for discussion.

5. Framework of An Online Archive

This is a further objective of the research. Students with experiences in website design and coding are encouraged to join this team.

Citation

[1] Joselit, D., 2013. After art. Princeton University Press.

[2] Lütticken, S., 2009. Idols of the market: modern iconoclasm and the fundamentalist spectacle.

指导老师

Ivy Feng

Princeton MArch

Ivy Feng graduated from the School of Architecture at Princeton University. In 2017, Ivy and her partners curated the exhibition #HASHTAG at Power Station of Art in Shanghai. She also led a team to work on the VR project Real Virtuality: City of Bilibili for 2017 Shenzhen Biennale. Ivy worked for SOM New York in 2015, and she is now an architect at Neri&Hu in Shanghai.

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