#209: PRADA TOKYO | THE CONSUMPTION OF SHOPPING
(photo by Anthony Poon)
As with fashion, the architecture of Prada Tokyo Aoyama, Japan, embodies the relationship between spectacle and spectator, between the structure and its visitor. At Prada, international shoppers, hip apparel, and innovative architecture are boldly on display, ready for consumption.
In 1978, architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron founded their firm in Basel, Switzerland, later winning the 2001 Pritzker Prize. Of the creative duo, Pritzker juror and architectural writer, Ada Louise Huxtable, stated, “They refine the traditions of modernism to elemental simplicity while transforming materials and surfaces through the exploration of new treatments and techniques.” And that is no clearer then with this Prada store.
Opened in 2003, this five-sided, seven-level flagship store, stands in contrast to the urban fabric of low-rise sameness. Not just in the building’s size and shape, Prada contrasts its context with the skin of diamond-shaped green glass. Four different types of glass panels are employed: 1) conventional flat and clear, 2) obscured etched glass, 3) convex and 4) concave. That latter two engage the surroundings by forcing its presence upon the passersby (convex) or drawing them in like a vacuum (concave).
The floor are stacked conventionally one on top another, as opposed to what architect Rem Koolhaas did for the Prada stores in New York Soho and Beverly Hills, where the floor transforms into a stepped ramp, theater, and display area in a single sweeping, up and down gesture. But at Prada Tokyo, one spatial concept does stand out. The floors are interrupted by long, horizontal, tube-like rooms that sit (tunnel?) halfway between the floors. Serving as retail exhibition and changing rooms, these tubes interrupt the otherwise predictable floor placement.
Though some have commented on how the 31,000-square-foot structure references a traditional gable-roofed house or even a shopping bag, the building’s exterior form simply follows the building codes restricting size, height, massing, etc. for this neighborhood of Aoyama.
A small plaza accompanies the building and serves as a transitional space between the hustle-bustle of Tokyo and the curated experience of high-end shopping. Such public open space also provides much relief within the dense grid of Japanese retail streets.
Herzog and de Meuron’s design of Prada Tokyo Aoyama is one of simplicity accompanied by the unexpected. Aside from a few explorations in interior finishes, the design has but only three ambitious flourishes. 1) The design is a tall singular building, but of an odd shape. 2) The exterior uses glass as do many commercial buildings, but Prada’s glass explores new technologies and expression. 3) The floor arrangement, the “building section,” is orthodox, but for the insertion of tubular rooms splitting the floor levels. It is with these few gestures, call them checked boxes within the agenda for artistry, that the design excels beyond its peers, offering an architectural experience that is elemental and poetic, simple and fruitful.
Very photogenic, the architecture becomes a digital commodity in the world of social media, not unlike Prada’s fashion, a brand known for its international desirability and resulting influence. Affluent shoppers seek out such indulgent statements, both in fashion and architecture, to consume and digest.
