Stockholm’s municipal government has announced it will block impending plans to build a giant Apple store in Kungsträdgården, a city centre park.
Apple’s design would place the store in the middle of Kungsträdgården (the King’s Garden) at the end of an avenue of cherry blossom trees. The company proposed to occupy 375 square metres of surrounding public parkland in addition to the private plot it intended to purchase, producing a design which would see the Apple store dominating the skyline.
Stockholm city council received around 1,800 responses to its consultation on the Kungsträdgården project, almost all of which were negative. Architects complained the design would see the building dominate the space, “like a parasite”, while members of the public raised concerns about the implications of selling public park space to private business.
Members of the environmental group Alternativ Stad, which had planned to stage a protest against the proposed building, instead conducted an impromptu victory celebration in Kungsträdgården at the news of the cancellation; with performances from local musicians and poets.
Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president in charge of retail, told investors last year that Apple is moving away from the traditional store model, saying: “It’s funny, we actually don’t call them stores anymore. We call them town squares, because they’re gathering places where everyone is welcome.” While this may theoretically be the case, the building would still to all intents and purposes be a large shop. Critics of Apple’s Stockholm design have pointed out that Kungsträdgården is already open to everyone; and that this could only be diminished by building the store.
Johanna Jarméus, an architect with Nyréns Arkitektkontor, told the Guardian: “Kungsträdgården is the most important park in Sweden. It is the thread that pulls together the historical power of the monarchy with the commercial blocks of Hamngatan and the working-class districts of Södermalm. This is very important for democracy because it has to do with power, symbolically and spatially.”
While the city council has refused to allow Apple to begin development at present, Apple still owns the land on which it hoped to build. Activists who want the space to remain open will have to find a way to buy the company out.
