"Un'atmosfera liberty per il prodotto Apple" is the name of my second degree thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania for the interior design course. This thesis will analyze Apple, its stores and my project proposal.

One of the strengths of Apple has always been its Apple Stores, for the first few years located exclusively in the United States of America and subsequently spread to the rest of the world.

Initially these stores were located inside shopping centers but later Apple began to devote itself to the design and construction of the structures that would house its most important stores or flagship stores, located in major cities in the world. Not all flagship stores were entirely designed by Apple, in the oldest cities these stores were placed in important historic buildings and it is on the latter case that I based my project.

My project proposal consists in placing a new Apple Store in a historic building in Catania and designing the first Apple flagship store in Sicily.

The building I chose for this project is an Art Nouveau villa called Villa Del Grado, also known as Villa Cigno, Villa Cocuzza or Villa di Bella, whose design dates back to the years between 1903 and 1908.

The villa is located at number 209 of via Corso Italia and the collections of the women's fashion brand "Soireve" take place on the ground floor, while the Parco Villa del Grado restaurant is located in the basement and on the first floor.

Unfortunately, being in a period of pandemic, the land registry offices and the owner of the villa were unable to help me obtain the elevations and floor plans necessary to obtain the precise measurements of the building and consequently to carry out this project I carried out an external photographic survey of the villa and comparing the photos obtained with the photos of some satellite map services to obtain the measurements of the streets, I obtained the measurements of the exteriors and interiors. Not being able to take photos inside, due to the policy on photos in shops, I obtained the internal measurements starting from the external ones and comparing the actual graphics from the inspections carried out in person. I was unable to visit the upper floor as it is not accessible to the public and to obtain the measurements I had to rely both on the photos outside the window and on the photos and videos made public by the company that uses the upper floor and the rear garden for parties and private receptions.

My project was not based only on the mere location of the Apple store in an ancient building, I took into account the degree of affluence of the street and the dimensions necessary for the display of the products, for the choice of the location I tried to find the right balance between the architecture of the historic building and the modern and minimalist lines of the Apple stores, using the lower floor for the sale and display of products through exhibitors redesigned by me based on the exhibitors already used in the other stores and using the upper floor for Todays at Apple support and events.

At the entrance, customers will find themselves in front of three doors, the side ones will be surmounted by two augmented-scale models of an iPhone 13 Pro and an Apple Watch Series 7, supported by a glass structure, which will indicate to users the respective rooms of the portable devices and wearable devices while the central door will be surmounted by the same glass structure but with the wording "hello" which reconnects with the iMac M1 poster visible from the entrance to the Macintosh room.

To maintain a minimal environment, I removed the chandeliers and replaced them with light strips placed at the top of the walls in such a way as to bring out the designs on the vaults.

The drawings of the paintings of the vaults are the original drawings currently present in the villa and to be able to insert them in the renderings I have drawn them by hand.

This room displays wearable products including the Apple Watch, with its straps, and headphones from Apple and Beats. The two tables are linked to the Apple Watch, the one with the glass exhibits all the variations of materials, editions and sizes of the watch cases while the other table is used for the customization and configuration of the Apple Watch, also allowing users to try them on.

While the tables used are for the most part the same ones already used by Apple, I limited myself to modifying their width and depth to better adapt them to the spaces of the villa, the wall displays are based on the style already used by Apple but I modified them by separating each display in two distinct pieces in such a way as not to hide the boiserie and varying the width of each display according to the size of the walls of the villa, thus obtaining eleven different exhibitors from each other.

The recessed display is dedicated to the AirPods Max where the five colors of the headphones are displayed on the right side, while on the left side an enlarged model of the headset takes place, showing more of the finishes.

The Macintosh room exhibits desktop computers such as Mac Pro, Mac Mini and iMac, laptops such as MacBook Air and MacBook Pro and entertainment-related devices and services such as HomePod, Apple TV and Apple Arcade to buyers.

The exhibitors are placed at the sides of the room while the four tables that expose the computers form a main corridor that will end with a room where two displays will reproduce commercials.

Another important element of the room is undoubtedly the giant Mac Pro located at the back of the room that emerges from a recessed display that partially shows the computer as if it were walking through the threshold of a door.

As with the room for wearable devices, the room for portable devices also consists of two tables, one set up for displaying the various models and colors of the iPhones and one for displaying the various models and colors of the iPads, some with of Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil allowing buyers to try these devices for themselves.

The two exhibitors instead exhibit the AirTags with their respective key rings, the various colors of the iPhone and iPad covers and some variants of the MagSafe accessories for the iPhone.

There are two rooms related to home automation products, the first features an exhibitor showing various third-party products compatible with the Apple ecosystem while the second contains two side-by-side exhibitors containing two large displays that allow users to see one in real time. 3D simulation that shows how some home automation products work, which can be operated from a pair of iPads placed under the displays.

The entire first floor is dedicated to the Genius Bar and the holding of "Today at Apple" events. The section linked to the Genius Bar consists of four tables, two rectangular and two square, characterized by a central foot that allows users and technicians to be able to sit more easily and to be able to connect to electricity and internet connection through some ethernet connectors placed inside special recesses in the tables.

Unlike the tables used for the lower level, these tables are based on the tables adopted in the Apple Store The Mall at Bay Plaza in the Bronx, as for those on the lower level I have changed the dimensions of the square tables and created rectangular ones on the basis of the square tables.

The "Today at Apple" events section includes a display almost as large as the wall used for presenting events, 172", a series of cubic seats in wood and leather, and a built-in chest of drawers where Apple employees can store material related to events.