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Apple offices : Angus Taylor’s Homage to Hermes rests in a landscape designed by Patrick Watson. -
Apple offices : Heath Nash’s My Secret Place pendant light and Animal Farm’s Plug Light, both designed for Southern Guild, enhance the space that leads to the garden. -
Apple offices : The Linen Fold sideboard in this passage is by Koop Design and the gorilla is really a bronze drinks cabinet called Welcome to My World made by Bronze Age for Southern Guild. -
Apple offices : The Collaboration Bench by Pierre Cronje for Southern Guild beneath Paula Louw’s A Simple Piece 1/2/3. The installation in the background is a wall of plates by Ruan Hoffmann. -
Apple offices : Michael Methven’s wildebeest gazes over John Vogel’s Fever Tree Table and Anteater Chair, all designed for Southern Guild. -
Apple offices : The main office features a one-off coffee table designed by Bronze Age for Source with GT Swivel Armchairs from Okha. The elephant sculpture is by Shirley Fintz. -
The Art of Apple
PHOTOS: Dook | PRODUCTION: Trevyn & Julian McGowan | WORDS: Nia Magoulianiti-McGregor
The Apple building in Johannesburg offers those who work and shop there a surprise around every corner.
You may think it looks like an art gallery designed with clean lines to give the artwork an unobstructed platform, or a space created by contemporary architect Tadao Ando to make the best use of natural light.
Close, but no cigar.
This is the Apple HQ in Sandton, where even visitors feel they are part of the action.
Adrian Davidson from Savile Row Interior Design and Architecture, who created the interior space (TPS.P Architectsworked on the exterior), says part of his brief was to makethe building as transparent as possible. “Even though acoustic barriers and areas of privacy were necessary, it’s designed so that visitors can be part of the hive of dynamic business activity. Visually, it’s extremely open and light.”
Honesty was another criterion. “We used raw materials such as concrete and introduced simple timber floors that age well,” says Adrian.
A place of high design
This is also a place of high design. Owned and commissioned by two maverick brothers, the building is a space where visitors and customers, management and cleaning staff, those who have a critical eye and those who just “know what they like”, have equal access to the design, sculptures and paintings.
Julian and Trevyn McGowan of Source helped one of the brothers – an avid collector with “an amazing eye” – to curate his collection of contemporary pieces.
“The interior is a juxtaposition of clean space and highly ornate elements featuring pieces by a broad selection of top designers from around the country,” says Trevyn. “The owner is playful with an adventurous spirit and that shows in his choice of art.” This explains the life-size solid bronze gorilla drinks cabinet by Bronze Age for Southern Guild, which holds the champagne and glasses.
“He likes challenging designs,” says Trevyn. The owner adds that he loves the idea of a stimulating and ever-changing working space. “Art and beautiful things put everything in perspective.”
Adventurous and playful
Those who work here can enjoy the finely carved Linen Fold sideboard by Koop Design and Angus Taylor’s huge Homage to Hermes lying in the garden. If you visit, you will stumble upon an upside-down angel by Beezy Bailey. Look up in the right placeand you will be amazed by a light called My Secret Place by Heath Nash.
“It’s about enjoyment and passion for life. It’s adventurous, masculine yet playful. It’s heartening and restorative,” says Trevyn. Even though one of Ruan Hoffmann’s decorative plates on display quotes an old 1960s truism, “You can’t always get what you want,” in this building, you just might.
• Savile Row Interior Design and Architecture: 011 234 8191,
www.savilerow.co.za
• TPS.P Architects: 011 646 8602, www.tpsp.co.za
• Source: 044 877 0719, www.source-sa.com
