SANAA / KUMIKO INUI: DIOR IN TOKYO

ESPAÑOL

Omotesando is, along with Ginza, one of the most important commercial areas in Tokyo dedicated to the fashion, housing a constellation of the world's most famous fashion brands and where they have gathered, as in few places in the planet, notable works by major Japanese and international architectural firms.

Several projects of renowned Japanese architects populate the areas of Omotesando and Ginza, such as Fumihiko Maki (Spiral Building), Tadao Ando (Omotesando Hills, hhstyle Armani Casa and Collezione), Toyo Ito (Tod's and Mikimoto ) and Kisho Kurokawa (headquarters of the Nursing Association). In addition, there are some works by foreign offices, such as Prada by Herzog and DeMeuron, Gyre by MVRDV and Mansion Hermes by Renzo Piano.

This post will be dedicated to the Tokyo offices of the internationally famous brand Dior, which commissioned their Omotesando and Ginza branches to SANAA (Sejima and Nishikawa Architects & Associates) and Kumiko Inui, respectively.

Some of the works of architecture's most famous shopping boulevard congregate near Omotesando.

SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa)
OMOTESANDO DIOR (2003)

The proposal for Dior by SANAA is minimalist and simple, as many of other works by this office. It's a great prism of glass and metal, austere and without ornamentation. However, it is based on a conceptual "skin", which becomes an element that allows a different degree of visual interaction with the interior of the building.

Photo courtesy of Galinsky

To achieve this result, a translucent acrylic coating is used, placed behind the glass. The opacity of the acrylic is different at each level, so the lighting effects seen from outside also varies, both during the day (according to the light variations by the time of the day or the weather status), and especially at night, when the building is illuminated from within, and looks like wearing a thin, lightweight clothing.

Photos courtesy of Ichisan and Haseo

The acrylic curtain also allows a separation between the outside (a facade designed according to the architectural principles of SANAA) and the interior (occupied with a more commercial criterion for the Dior store). In this regard, Kazuo Sejima says:

"Mr. Arnault is a very rich man, and he wants to sell as much Dior as possible. And we're not so interested in it. We separate divide the exterior and interior. The exterior is very beautiful and behind the wall is their intention (she refers to the company). We try to keep some conflict. "

Still, SANAA managed to design som experimental interior details, for the perceptual self-exploration. For example, in the dressings, instead of mirrors, they proposed real-time projections of the user.

Kumiko Inui
GINZA DIOR, 2004

This Dior building, whose facade was designed by young architect Kumiko Inui, also explores the concept of skin, in a simple but powerful way.

While the building is a quite common rectangular box-shaped, is the renovation of the facade which gives it a special character.

This is a double skin that wraps the building, made of white metal perforated in different patterns, creating an effect of texture and depth which, despite the hardness of the material, affords to give lightness to the facade.

Again, it is at night when the double screen produces an almost magical effect, thanks to the fiber optic lighting that filters through the pattern formed by thousands of holes of varying diameter that are arranged alternately in horizontal and diagonal directions.

SEE ALSO:
- SHOPS AND COMMERCIAL FACILITIES.

• De Beers, Ginza. Jun Matsui.
• Gyre, MRDV
• Maison Hermes, Renzo Piano
• Namba Parks, Osaka
• TOD'S Omotesando, Toyo Ito
• Omotesando Hills. Tokyo, Japan (Tadao Ando).

Do not run over her, please!

HERZOG & DEMEURON IN TOKYO: PRADA

ESPAÑOL

I think it will be interesting to compare the work of two foreign offices in Tokyo: Herzog & De Meuron and Renzo Piano, both Pritzker Prize laureates. Both use glass in the design of ravishing fashion stores, converting their works in glamorous, elegant lamps. However, while Italian master uses the concept of curtain wall for his Maison Hermes store, the Swiss architects applied the concept of a frame structure for their Prada (2003).

LOCATION

The Prada store stands in Harajuku, Aoyama district, near the Omotesando boulevard.

See location on Google Maps

CONCEPT

The store designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron appears as a sculptural element in the middle of the compact urban fabric.

Images and sections courtesy of Herzog & De Mouron

As we approach to the building during the day, the form stands out in the skyline basically composed of concrete boxes. The shape of Prada, with its green glass faceted surface, looks like a kind of emerald, it seems carved rather than constructed.

Three views of the volume of the building.

The building is preceded by a small square, gained from Tokyo's speculative public space, where every square meter is used to its full commercial value. But this square, defined by a moss covered, aging looking wall, seems to have little social success (it is a bit intimidating to sit there and be observed by the fierce look of the security guards). It is, however, useful to better appreciate the architecture.

"We decided early on to focus on vertical volume containing the maximum permitted gross floor area so that part of the lot acreage can remain undeveloped. This area will form a kind of plaza, comparable to the public spaces of a European city."

It is an irregular volume, its 6 floors have been crafted so that the volume does not seem so high, and also to comply with height regulations imposed by the urban planning in this area. For this reason, some of its corners have been lowered, so that the perception of its volume varies from the user's location.

The volume consists of a diamond grid of made of metal pipes, whose openings have been cladded with glass panels, either concave, convex or flat, some transparent, others translucent, giving texture and variety to the surface.

"an interactive optical device. Because some of the glass is curved, it seems to move as you walk around it. That creates awareness of both the merchandise and the city—there's an intense dialogue between actors. Also, the grid brings a human scale to the architecture, like display windows. It's almost old-fashioned."

Jacques Herzog.

This frame defines the shape of the openings (including the entrance) and behaves like an element that unifies the irregular and gently angled shape of the building.

Photo courtesy of mcoxy

The rhomboid-grid has also structural purposes, behaving like a flexible mesh that supports, along with the elevators, the concrete slabs and allows more elasticity to the union of metal and glass in case of an earthquake.

3D representation of the structural system

Photos courtesy of Architectural Record.

In the luminous interior space, the decor uses materials ranging from resin, silicone and glass fiber, leather, or porous wood.

Photos courtesy of The Sketch

Like Toyo Ito's Tod's Omotesando , the Herzog & DeMeuron's building gains more presence at night, when resembles a huge faceted emerald, a large sophisticated lamp to display the Prada fashion products.

In this way the interior becomes much more exposed, to be shown to the outside, behaving like a giant shop window.

Photo courtesy of Rim

Photo courtesy of dnc

Photo courtesy of Katsudon

SEE ALSO:
- SHOPS AND COMMERCIAL FACILITIES.

• De Beers, Ginza. Jun Matsui.
• Gyre, MRDV
• Maison Hermes, Renzo Piano
• Namba Parks, Osaka
• TOD'S Omotesando, Toyo Ito
• Omotesando Hills. Tokyo, Japan (Tadao Ando).

TADAO ANDO: HHSTYLE.COM / CASA / LIMITED

A few blocks from Omotesando Hills is an experimental project, which shows a new style, atypical of Tadao Ando's vocabulary. In fact, if I was not told this was a building by Tadao Ando, ​​I would have thought that was a project of Daniel Libeskind.

See location in Google Maps

The Japanese company hhstyle.com, an online reseller specialized in the distribution of furniture and housewares, was associated with two of the largest interior design companies in the world: Italian Armani Casa, from the famous Italian designer Giorgio Armani, dedicated to the line of home decor, and Boffi , specializing in bathrooms and kitchens. Thus hhstyle.com / Casa was born.

The owner of hhstyle.com, Takayuki Harada, a personal friend of the architect, commissioned the project of a new store to Tadao Ando, ​​and asked him to, preferably, to propose a building whose formal language would be different than that of his traditional projects .

Ando's response, which opened in 2005, could not be more striking. It is a steel structure, massive, angled, detached from the environment, completely introverted and almost intimidating.

Conceptual scheme. Courtesy of Tadao Ando Architects & Associates.

Some people have called it an "extravagant bunker" and critic Martin Webb has called it a "mammoth" that "stands in stark contrast to its neighbors in terms of surface texture, scale, color and contents". This unfriendly, alienating façade would be an attempt to keep a distance from school teenagers-who used to be the most frequent users in this area-, in search of a more sophisticated customer.

Photo courtesy of Nacas & Partners Inc

CONCEPT

The building is a dark metallic structure (instead of a concrete one, the usual Ando's signature), whose angular faces are folded like an origami. The layout, also differs from the rational geometry characteristic of Ando and becomes a much freer composition , including rotated elements and aggressive angles. This almost blind object does not face the street, in fact its only visual connection to the road is a thin horizontal slit.

Instead, the building opens into a small square created by Ando and where he has planted a group of 16 Japanese olive trees.

Details of the entrance and its relation to the square.

It is not the first time that Ando proposes on a dark, single volume instead of overlapping several geometries using concrete. Already in his installation Minamidera, in Naoshima, the architect had opted for a prism made of dark wood, inspired by the color of Japanese temples. But unlike the hhstyle.com store, in that abstraction was possible to recognize elements from the traditional Japanese architecture.

Perhaps the choice of material could be explained by the nature of the ownership of the property. In most cases Ando's buildings are built in places where the owners have the property of the land, so that the concrete is used to express the stability and permanence of its architecture. But in this case is an area of ​​352 m2 leased in two parts, one to 5 and another to 10 years. Therefore, it is more like a temporary pavilion than a permanent building, and consequently a metallic structure has the comparative advantages since it can be easily dismantled and removed.

Details of the entrance. Compare with the surrounding architecture. Photo Courtesy of Liao Yusheng

The interior is composed of a series of sub spaces in various levels that try to offer visitors an exciting journey, aided by the dynamism of the folds of the walls and the ceiling. It gives the impression that the architect has sought, through an introverted project, to create a world apart, designed to distance the visitor from the external bustle outside and focus only on the exhibited merchandise.

Photo courtesy of Nacas & Partners Inc

At the bottom are the Armani Casa collections, while at the top are the fine (and expensive) Boffi kitchens.

Intricate spatial arrangement offers a dynamic path. Photo Courtesy of Liao Yusheng

The spaces are located on two rotated bars, organized around the stairs and services located in the middle. High ceilings and balconies allow the space to be experienced and viewed from different angles.

The interior finishing is opposite to the outside. If externally it is a smooth, dark metallic skin, inside it becomes corrugated and white.

Photo courtesy of Nacas & Partners Inc

One of the things that caught my attention was the lack of natural light inside the room, because it only gets solar radiation through the thin horizontal slit in the front and the small triangular skylights on the roof. Although the interior is painted white, the place seemed to me a little dark.

While it is true that Ando designs "from light to dark" as Philip Jodidio says, using the range of shadows to give it a mysterious, almost spiritual and theatrical atmosphere to his works, as in the case of Chichu Art Museum or the Church of the Light (which, paradoxically, is mostly dark) I do not know how convenient was to apply this criterion for designing a shop. In any case, the problem was solved using artificial lighting.

Photo courtesy of Mitsuo Matsuka.

Another aspect to consider is the environmental conditioning. I visited this store in autumn, and the indoor temperature seemed mild, but I wonder if the metal box would become a furnace in summer and a refrigerator in winter. Of course, the interior temperature can be adjusted by using air conditioning or heating, but these methods are environmentally inefficient and increase maintenance costs.

Photo courtesy of Mitsuo Matsuka.

Unfortunately things have not gone well for this building. In 2007 the partnership with Armani and Boffi was dissolved and after a few months later the store was reopened as hhstyle.com / Limited, which, despite its name, a proposal intended to be less "limited" or exclusive. Still, in January 2008 it again closed and the last I heard is that the store was for rent. Unfortunately, with Japan's economy in recession, the fashion industry and design is one of the first to suffer the consequences.

"For Rent" reads a sign in the narrow window of the building.

The photography is prohibited inside, so this video is as a very valuable document.

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

Where did Ando get this almost-deconstructivist style from? In fact, he has been experimenting with more dynamic forms in his latest projects. Such is the case of 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, a small gallery, built in Tokyo Midtown as a place where Japanese design can be "discovered, promoted and shared."

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT is located in front of the Suntory Art Museum, by Kengo Kuma.

In this structure, despite being based on a clear geometry and the use of concrete, steel and metal, (Ando's preferred materials), the architect experiments with angular forms, in order to give more drama to the design.


The roofs are powerfully buried on the soil, giving the impression that the building comes from the earth. This building stands on a level below the surface, in order to be used inside.

The horizontal slit that runs along the rear facade of the gallery is a direct predecessor to that used in hhstyle.com / Casa.

Well, I think every architect has the right to re-invent himself, especially if, like Ando, ​​he has been criticized to be too repetitive. Many great architects have made radical changes in their careers when they were in a mature age: Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank O. Gehry, Philip Johnson. I think it takes courage to abandon a style with which an artist feels comfortable to explore another radically different one. Ando probably soon will dominate this new style with the mastery of his old works, and maybe it will take us a while to get used to the new Ando. I think that in any case, his shop for hhstyle.com / CASA has been a first step (or stumble?) in that direction.

SEE ALSO
- OTHER WORKS BY TADAO ANDO

• Chapel in Mt. Rokko, Kobe, Japan. (1985-86)
• Church of the Light, Osaka, Japan. (1988-89)
• Church on Water, Tomomu, Japan. Tadao Ando (1988)
• Garden of Fine Arts, Kyoto, Japan. (1990)
• Omotesando Hills
• Times I & II
  

SHOPS AND COMMERCIAL FACILITIES.

• De Beers, Ginza. Jun Matsui.
• Gyre, MRDV
• Maison Hermes, Renzo Piano
• Namba Parks, Osaka
• TOD'S Omotesando, Toyo Ito

Bono, lead singer of U2, in a concert in Japan , publicly expressed his admiration for the architect of the Church of Light. Here, "boxing" with Ando. Judging by this latest design, it seems Bono hit Ando very hard.