abstract
Architecture can influence fashion consumption. Fashion is a primary form of self-expression as well as group identity, and has become an object of obsession in our culture. In terms of production practices and treatment of garment workers, fashion often expresses social and ethical complexities. We also face considerable environmental challenges involving the production, transportation, maintenance and disposal of clothes. By allowing a glimpse into the production cycle, a fashion house could promote not only their latest trends, but also their humanitarian stance. This fashion house can raise awareness on the effects of the apparel process on the environment, the economy and the wages of others. The foundation begins with a design school in the vicinity of a high-end retail store with views of the manufacturing factory that produces the garments being designed and sold. A runway venue will exhibit the garments and influence how the public understands and experiences the product. A recycling center for disposal of the garment will also support the fashion cycle. By exposing realities within consumerism, the true relationship between consumption and production in the fashion industry can be exploited.
introduction Just east of the Galleria on palm-lined Westheimer, Highland Village is an upscale, eclectic and pedestrianfriendly shopping complex that looks like it belongs more in Palm Beach than Houston. With clothing and home offerings from many of Houston’s top retailers, Highland Village provides alternative to large indoor malls. The building that previously housed the Gap has been torn down and provides space for a unique fashion retail experience. Ones relationship with fashion is a life-long process that starts in childhood, and interest in a certain piece of clothing starts before wearing it. During the shopping experience, the initial relationship to a particular fashion is established. Varying emotions are evoked from luxury shops and department stores, at flea markets or second hand boutiques. The desire to style the body is a key to the creation of the social concept, with fashion as a subtle negotiation space for moral, religious, sexual, ethical, socio-cultural, age or gender specific issues. The program suggested for this site includes spaces that enhance the retail experience, but also have an educational agenda. Organized to raise awareness and support for sustainable shopping, it features a design studio, a production area, a high-end boutique, a runway show and a recycle center. The store will feature clothing and accessories made from either eco–friendly or recycled materials that were designed and produced on site. This retail space will bring a new shopping and community experience to the consumer and the design will address issues of sustainable construction techniques, as well as community building through education regarding sustainable possibilities in fashion and waste management, all while fostering a local economy. Ultimately, consumers will become more knowledgeable about their purchases. The shop features local suppliers and designers, therefore minimizing the footprint of each product purchased and building the local economy through direct to con-
program sumer sales opportunities. Students that will design the clothing to be produced and sold will have multiple opportunities to develop real-world projects that are taken from concept to final product. Along the way, they will impact societal traditions and the industry itself. Students will confront the challenges of the real world of the fashion industry while cultivating their own personal vision. Branding the image of the shop will be another major objective. Branding and architecture have developed an intimate relationship wherein they feed off one another. For example, Prada and other leading brands have in recent years employed architecture as a central part of a larger marketing strategy. Architecture can use the concepts and methods of branding as a strategic tool for economic and cultural transformation. Branding in architecture involves the expression of identity, exposing a stance on a position, and enhancing an image. Through effective design, the retail brand will create an authentic place where customers will emotionally and physically experience the unique values and offerings, which will inevitably increase customer satisfaction and positive publicity, and thereby profit.
Styling the world of change, changing the world of style, this store caters to the urban chic, fashion conscious, socially and environmentally responsible consumer. The dedication to environmental responsibility begins with the materials used in the clothing and accessories: certified organic cotton, undyed Alpaca wool, silk, hemp, Tencel. The store believes labor should be valued. By supporting the craftsmanship of the local community, the store is providing a positive alternative to the all-toocommon abuse of sweatshop workers. Equal to the passion for positive change is the passion for style. All the usual components of a high-end retail store will be present for the customer’s pleasure. Fashion is fuelled by conversion. There’s the famous phrase, fast fashion, that clearly explains the speed in which fashion is always reinventing itself. In contrast to architecture that has historically been a slow process, the economics of fashion dictate frequent changes of styles and clothing lines. Therefore the design of the store has to have the intent, like fashion, to continually change with people’s desires. The space will need to be adaptable and involve forward thinking. The community will need to experience a cultural event. The store can incorporate the use of translucent concrete, large-scale multimedia projects and mechanically controlled racks that can be raised or lowered. These elements can combine to create a versatile retail space geared for performance. Departments in the store can blur together, possibly allowing the retail space to become the runway venue. The program was based on a necessary percentage for each department. The calculations were determined in order to create a one-story building that would fit the context of the site while allowing the merchandise to feel exclusive and local, and not mass-produced like many of it’s neighboring stores, many of which are national chains. If another floor was to be added, the program square footages would just double by department. With more students to study and design the clothing, more space would be needed to produce the clothing. As more clothing is produced, more clothing would be showcased at the fashion show and therefore more space would be needed to sell the extra clothing, which would ultimately lead to more disposal of clothing.
LEARN
design school for 7-10 designers classroom 400 sqft design studio 900 sqft
10 long desks (7’x3’) with sewing machine 10 dress forms long table for fabric cutting
restroom 200 sqft
PRODUCE
apparel manufacturing
(fabric, trim will be outsourced from local suppliers) production room 2300 sqft
3 desks with computers 2 long cutting tables 10 tables (5’X3’) with sewing machines 2 pressing tables rolling clothes racks for final products
fabric and supply storage 500 sqft
EXHIBIT
runway venue catwalk
*can be part of retail space
seating for 30 1000 sqft model makeup/changing room *can be underneath stage *can share space with studio
CONSUME boutique
2 dressing rooms 200 sqft cash wrap area 100 sqft merchandise floor 5700 sqft shelving, racks (mechanically controlled) storage/back stock, loading dock 2000 sqft *must be accessible to manufacturing
*must be accessible to studio, must be accessible to loading dock
restroom 200 sqft
DISPOSE
recycling center
drop off center 500 sqft sorting area 1000 sqft distribution area 2500 sqft
*can be combined with boutique merchandise
Other
Restrooms for boutique, runway venue and recycle center 500 sqft administrative office 150sqft accounting office 150 sqft maintenance 150 sqft breakroom 450 sqft circulation 1500 sqft mechanical/HVAC 1000 sqft parking provided by highland village
total 20,400 sqft
site analysis Elegant Highland Village is one of Houston’s premiere shopping and dining destinations. Here can be found the very finest in women’s and men’s fashions, shoes and leather goods, unique gifts and collectibles, salons, children’s clothing, furniture, fixtures, home accessories and cookware, eyewear, lingerie, jewelry, and financial services. Built in 1952, the 265,000 square-foot shopping center has been owned by Delaware-based Highland Village Holding Inc. since 1991.
shopping in high(brand) village
The site selection represents an ironic reflection of the design intent. Formerly the site of the Gap, a main beneficiary of sweatshop labor that urged teenagers to buy its clothing, omitting from their cheery advertisements that a Global Exchange investigation revealed that Gap employees in Mexico earned as little as 28 cents per hour making jeans that later sold for over $100, this project will bring to light the hidden practices of our country’s supposedly “American” brands. Consumers are in the dark about the means of clothing production. No one wants to hear that his or her favorite stores make clothing through illegal means, or that he or she owns clothing that was made by an impoverished child under terrible conditions in a third-world country. Hence, clothing companies utilization of sweatshops to reduce prices remains commonplace and profitable, despite the efforts of anti-sweatshop groups worldwide. By taking over the space of the Gap, an unethical practice that usually goes unnoticed will be exposed, allowing consumers to grasp the impact of sweat shops in fashion. The site, located on the northwest corner of Westheimer and Drexel Drive, is 120’ by 170’ (20,400 sqft). The site is surrounded by parking on the west, east and north sides and a topiary display that spells out Highland Village on the south side adjacent to Westheimer.
Drexel Road
This upscale center is home to some of the most prestigious names in retail such as Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma, Banana Republic, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Cole Haan, Chico’s, lucy, Lucky Brand Dungarees and Victoria’s Secret, along with exclusive specialty stores such as Tootsies and Michael Kemper Salon & Day Spa. With easy access to ample free parking, the discriminating shopper will find the very best that Houston has to offer in an inviting, accommodating atmosphere. But unfortunately, like many shopping centers, none of the stores sell local merchandise that was designed or produced from the area.
Westheimer Road
1” = 200’
tanning in highland village
driving in highland village fast steady slow
winter winds
winter solstice sunset 5:25 pm 240°
Drexel Road
summer solstice sunset 7:24 pm 299°
storm winds
summer solstice sunrise 5:18 am 59°
Westheimer Road
winter solstice sunrise 6:48 am 119°
prevailing winds
1” = 200’
walking in highland village
parking in highland village
worker commuter shopper
best ok worst
Drexel Road
Drexel Road
site specific
Westheimer Road
Westheimer Road
1” = 200’
1” = 200’
hiding in highland village
what to buy in highland village clothing
(includes shoes, accessories, etc.)
furniture
(includes kitchen, hardware, home accessories, etc.)
food
Drexel Road
(includes cafes, coffee shops, etc.)
80’ tall parking garage 17’
17’ 20’ 17’ 20’
17’
Westheimer Road
25’ tall shopping strip
17’ 20’ 35’
17’
20’
17’ 25’
1” = 200’
what’s around highland village
building in highland village three-story building
office residential retail
two-story building
learn
1500sqft
produce 3000sqft
consume 8000sqft
dispose 3000sqft exhibit
Drexel Road
one-story building
1000sqft
Westheimer Road Westheimer Road
1” = 200’
1” = 350’
views of highland village 1
2
2 1
4
3
3
4
photos of highland village
prada: designing brand building stores Within the last few years, Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron have revolutionized the Prada fashion empire. Prada’s patronage is characteristically astute and has been rewarded by a series of intriguing and provocative designs for stores in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco (Rem Koolhaas) and Tokyo (Herzog & de Meuron) that attempt to redefine the boundaries between architecture and fashion. Herzog & de Meuron also designed Prada’s new production centre in Italy and the firm’s New York headquarters (in a refurbished piano factory). Rem Koolhaas/OMA redesigned their runway experience, while OMA’s in-house research group, AMO, tackled Prada’s website. Miuccia Prada and her eponymous fashion house have become synonymous with a shrewdly intrepid approach to architectural patronage. Since 1999, Prada has embarked on a program of new store designs and brand expansion. Though the worlds of architecture and fashion have a fertile and often colorful reciprocity, this goes beyond the periodic tasteful fitout into a more serious (and big budget) exploration of the radical that aims to reinvent the simple act of clothes shopping into a singular experience – consumerism as culture or religion and shops as carefully choreographed environments or temples. These two firms were commissioned by Prada for their innovativeness, creativity and experience in order to create an image. The basic idea is to reshape both the concept and function of shopping, pleasure and communication, to encourage the meshing of consumption and culture. For Prada and these two architecture firms, shopping has become the center of a cultural debate, where the act of shopping has become so central to our lifestyle. Small, separated shops have given way to department stores and shopping malls, and shopping itself has become a ubiquitous form of entertainment which can be done anywhere and everywhere: airports, museums and so on. While Miuccia prefers Koolhaas for the store designs, her husband and long time business partner Patrizio Bertelli prefers Herzog and de Meuron.
prada ny 2001
Prada New York is an interior conversion of the former Guggenheim store in Soho. The store’s design was based on recent technological innovations that work with varying degrees of success in shopping environments. Koolhaas was said to have spent month’s investigating ways to reinvent the retail experience. Although he revolutionized the flagship store experience, he was lacking in the use of space for generating retail profits. Instead of entering the store and noticing the merchandise, customers initially see the round elevator, which is large enough to hold at least 20 people and is said to have cost somewhere in the millions. It takes up crucial space near the front entrance, and only serves the purpose of slowly lowering shoppers one floor down. Koolhaas also sacrificed a great deal of retail space on both floors in order to have what he refers to as a “big wave”, and though its visual effect is strong, it seems to greatly impair the shopping experience due to it largely being unused space that impedes proper traffic flow in the basement level. As a means to naturally connect to the large basement area and guide customers to the more invisible parts of the store, the floor steps downwards in its entire width and rises subsequently to reconnect to the ground level, creating a half pipe. This blurring of the floors initially seems like it would be a brilliant idea, but again actually takes up valuable retail space. Fortunately, it has become an incredible display of mannequins, far more powerful than the usual dispersed displays stores have. The large half pipe works to connect both floors visually and keeps the space open, but as a result makes the basement level feel cramped and dark. Once shoppers descend into the basement level via wooden stairs that go alongside the “big wave”, there are shopping spaces on either side; a small room off to the left and a larger space to the right, which is itself broken up into small rooms. Here Koolhaas decided to leave sheetrock bare, which serves as an interesting counterpoint to the technological gadgetry that domi-
nates the basement level. One of the most interesting technological innovations in the store, and usually packed with spectators, is the changing rooms. The changing rooms have sliding glass doors made with SGG’s Priva-Lite technology, a glass with liquid crystal film inside that becomes opaque when an electric current through the film is cut off. Much like a two-way mirror, the customer trying on clothing continues to see those outside, while they can’t see the customer who is left to trust the technology while he or she strips down. Though the technology is impressive, the glass doors seem bulky and closely resemble your average suburban sliding glass door, aside from the fact that a foot-operated switch on the floor of the changing room can close these. This store includes other innovative approaches to shopping. For instance, dressing rooms use video technology that allows the shopper to see herself from her back. The strongest component of the design is its ability to change. One entire side of the store’s ground level features graphics that are applied to the wall much like wallpaper would be. This serves as a potential for changing the store seasonally and is utilized to make the store’s design more active. The displays in the store are made mobile so that they can easily be moved out of the way for special occasions. Most of the mannequins are cased in cages hung from the ceiling with motorized suspenders. Rumor has it that the store hasn’t used this component, and has remained the same since opening day. Sources: Rem Koolhaas. El Croquis 131/32: Rem Koolhaas-OMA I. Madrid: Croquis Editorial, 2006, 148-197. Rem Koolhaas. Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli. Projects for Prada Part 1. Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2001, 84.
prada tokyo 2003
Prada New York is an interior conversion of the former In the Aoyama district of Tokyo, a mixed-use neighborhood of low-rise buildings where not a square meter of land has been left unoccupied, the Swiss architecture team of Herzog & de Meuron built a new store for Prada. A tall and narrow kaleidoscope-like structure houses a twostory retail space and multiple levels of offices, backed by an outdoor space for the public--a rarity in crowded Tokyo. The finished structure, encased in a visually porous skin, is as decorative as it is architectural and is both metaphorically and literally linked to its surrounding environment, and to the idea of the garment. The intent of this store, and all the Prada store’s, is to reshape both the concept and function of shopping, pleasure and communication, to encourage the meshing of consumption and culture. As the one Prada epicenter that Rem Koolhaas did not design, it has been an unqualified architectural success. Although this building, like the others, has its roots in Koolhaas’s consulting work for Prada, its design was ultimately handed over to Herzog & de Meuron. The firm produced a glowing, crystalline structure that many critics said they preferred to the SoHo Prada store. The store is a strikingly unconventional six story glass crystal that is soft despite its sharp angles – as a result of its fivesided shape, the smooth curves throughout its interior, and its signature diamond-shaped glass panes, which vary between flat, concave and convex “bubbles”. The glass walls are not the usual transparent curtainwall but a transparent, structural shell. Within, the structural cores and tubes morph seamlessly into elevators, stairs, fitting rooms and display shelves, giving a sense of continuous shopping space, very much integrated into the architecture. There is no single focal shop window; rather the entire building is a huge display case, generating faceted reflections and an array of changing, almost cinematic, views from both outside and inside. At night, light pulsates through the crystalline lattice, tantalizingly exposing floors of merchandise. And everywhere
there are glimpses of the Tokyo streetscape filtered and framed by the giant net. The Prada building sits in a corner of its site, creating a small entrance plaza – an effective gesture of restraint from an otherwise unrestrained building. Creating outdoor space and reversing the typical Japanese emphasis on looking inward by giving importance to the view, Herzog and de Meuron designed a building different than it’s context, but in a city with virtually no public space in the European, sense Herzog & de Meuron’s first move is a bold and urbanistically generous one, stacking up the shop and office accommodation into a stumpy fivesided block to create a small piazza at its base that successfully meshed consumption and culture. Sources: Phoebe Chow, ‘Under the Net, Fashion Store Tokyo, Japan’, Architecture E-Book, Vol. 8, 46-51.
3-5 3-5 Views of of Tokyo Tokyo are are diffused diffused through through Views the tubular tubular grid. grid. Inside, Inside, aa seamless seamless the white landscape landscape is is articulated articulated by by the the white paraphernalia of of display. display. paraphernalia
F ASHION STORE , T OKYO , J APAN ARCHITECT H ERZOG & DE M EURON
office
shop
6
first floor
fourth floor
shop shop
7
Though it might appear capricious, the irregular geometry of the tower is in fact dictated by Tokyo’s complex zoning and planning laws that have shaped and eroded the basic six-storey block. Herzog & de Meuron’s early exploratory models resembled roughly carved pieces of ice, now evolved into a more streamlined and tautly chamfered form. This is wrapped in a rhomboidal grid, like a giant fishing net (or string vest), infilled with a mixture of flat, concave and convex panels of glass. Most are clear, some, where they enclose changing rooms, are translucent. The convex panels billow out gently through the grid like bubbles or puckered flesh (enhancing the string vest analogy). Cunningly, there is no single focal shop window; rather the entire building is a huge display case, generating faceted reflections and an array of changing, almost cinematic, views from both outside and inside. At night, light pulsates through the crystalline lattice, tantalizingly exposing floors of merchandise. Tied back to the vertical cores of the building, the tubular steel grid forms part of the structure, so that facade and structure are in effect a seamless entity. The grid acts as stiffening element, bracing the structure against seismic forces. Inside all is equally seamless. A meandering labyrinth of cool white space forms a suitably neutral canvas for the carefully orchestrated display of designer objects. At intervals, the double-
height spaces are penetrated by the diagrid structure, bleached white like dinosaur ribs. Changing rooms are enclosed by panels of electropic glass that can turn opaque at the flick of a switch. Lights and monitors wiggle provocatively on serpentine stalks adding a whiff of Barbarella campness, compounded by the puzzling and slightly perverse presence of an array of white fur rugs. And everywhere there are glimpses of the Tokyo streetscape filtered and framed by the giant net. Though Prada is undoubtedly technically sophisticated, you wonder, slightly heretically, if a mere boutique merits such a concentrated application of resources and architectural imagination. But this is the rarefied world of fashion, where normal rules have never applied. PHOEBE CHOW Architect Herzog & de Meuron, Basel Project team Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Stefan Marbach, Reto Pedrocchi, Wolfgang Hardt, Hiroshi Kikuchi, Yuko Himeno, Shinya Okuda, Daniel Pokora, Mathis Tinner, Luca Andrisani, Andreas Fries, Georg Schmid Associate architect Takenaka Corporation Structural engineers Takenaka Corporation, WGG Schnetzer Puskas Mechanical engineers Takenaka Corporation, Waldhauser Engineering Facade consultant Emmer Pfenninger Lighting consultant Arup Lighting Photographs Nacasa & Partners
3 4 5
10 m
5
5
N
third floor
ground floor plan (scale approx 1:250)
shop
shop
counter
B
storage
0
48 | 8
5
10 m
0
basement plan
5
10 m
second floor
50 | 8
cross section
cross section
prada la 2004
Sometimes form is content, but not on palm-lined Rodeo Drive, where form is formality: Its storefronts entice shoppers into guarded boutiques, casting an intimidating aura of exclusivity. Rem Koolhaas’s creativity often inverts the expected, and with his three-story, 24,000square-foot Prada building (with 14,750 square feet for retail) squeezed between Gucci and Brioni, he embarked on overturning the typology of the shop. It is a piece of architecture whose most dramatic gesture is invisible: the building is completely lacking a storefront in the traditional sense. Before the store opens each morning, a gigantic garage like aluminum door will retract into the basement, leaving no barrier -- no windows, no columns, no doors -- between the $400 sandals and the sidewalk. The only apparent “architecture” consists of a huge, utterly plain aluminum street front elevation. A truss allows this facade to span across the lot, hovering a full story above the sidewalk, as the pavement slips into the interior. The void draws visitors through an air curtain, toward a broad, commanding staircase rising to a second-floor plateau. The absence of facade allows the public to enter absolutely freely, creating a hybrid condition between public and commercial space. Also, there is nowhere to affix the all-important logo. The non-façade of Prada is conspicuous in its absence, suggesting the company’s supreme brand confidence. Prada is experimenting with their identity rather than over determining it. The shift from one of the most exclusive brands in fashion to stressing an open, welcoming quality in its architecture allows the brand to entice customers who would have been too intimidated before. Customers who would have avoided Prada because of whatever reservations they may have had about the brand may walk in to the store unknowingly, possibly realizing that they too enjoy browsing Prada purses. Instead of a minimalist style that often only looks good when nobody’s in it, Prada LA created a space that was
exclusive but also informal. The grand humpbacked stair that rises from the entrance and descends at the rear of the store can become an occasional hangout for Rodeo Drive regulars, as the New York store’s own dramatic stair was intended SoHo shoppers. The firm has responded by producing a store here that tries to outdo the one in Tokyo not with jaw-dropping form but with an accumulation of precise if expensive details, along with a deployment of Koolhaas’s always-inventive attempts to carve out visual connections between various levels of a building. Several elements are borrowed from the SoHo store, including the central stair; the glass panels that can go from transparent to opaque at the flick of a switch; digital displays that hang from the racks like plasma-screen dresses; and fitting rooms with special mirrors that allow shoppers to see themselves from the front and the back at the same time. There is also an emphasis throughout the building on an ever-shifting palette of materials, including Sponge, a coral-like substance of Koolhaas’s invention that lines the walls of the second floor. It is the only prominent material in the store that uses the shade of green that can be found in all of Prada’s smaller stores. Sources: Rem Koolhaas. El Croquis 131/32: Rem Koolhaas-OMA I. Madrid: Croquis Editorial, 2006, 148-197. Rem Koolhaas. Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli. Projects for Prada Part 1. Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2001, 84.
prada sf 2000-2008
as stainless steel walls result in a substantial adverse change to the downtown environment. Seen as hostile and inappropriate, Prada’s first sin was that the facade is stainless steel; the metal was not a preferred surface material such as brick or stone. Even worse, the lack of a classical base or cornice means that Prada would not be consistent with the prevailing pattern of the area.
Rem Koolhaas proposed a new 10 story building in downtown San Francisco, close to Union Square, to be Prada`s Headquarters on the West Coast. Two floating cubes on top of each other contain a 39,000 square-foot store program and offices, along with showrooms, gallery spaces and a VIP penthouse at the top. A public viewing terrace and coffee bar separates both cubes on the 6th floor level.
For almost ten years, Prada’s presence in San Francisco was confined to a small boutique on Geary Street while the Rem Koolhaas epicenter was proposed, rejected and scrapped. The city is now treated to a long overdue flagship that opened across the street from the original project. However, architectural enthusiasts will be disappointed to find that there are no signs of Koolhaas, just the pale green walls that adorn the regular stores.
In architectural terms, the proposed building is a manifesto on the skyscraper: A series of floor plates with totally unique characters are stacked on top of each other and wrapped with a mysterious and neutral skin that reveals a sense of the inner diversity without giving it all away. This facade is made out of stainless steel panels that are perforated with about 10,000 round holes, windows ranging between 2.5 - 9 inches in diameter. proposed design
proposed design
proposed design
The size of the openings is designed according to the force flow in these structural steel plates, which are able to absorb all horizontal forces in case of earthquakes and guarantee the structural integrity of the building. What emerges is a quality generally missing in the current condition of shopping: the presence of daylight. The facade is no longer blocking out all light but filters and distributes it through various translucent materials inside the space: polycarbonate, colored resin, exclusively developed porous-transparent polyurethane panels etc. Products are displayed against the light, in x-ray like conditions, or profit in a more classic arrangement from the evenly dispersed natural glow. In contrast to the notorious blindness of today`s malls and department stores, daylight reenters the territory of shopping. But the debate over the merits of the proposed boutique near Union Square moved from the sublime to the ridiculous -- and shows the absurdity of trying to legislate design. The San Francisco Planning Commission held a hearing on the environmental merits of the building that Prada and Koolhaas hoped to build. The problem is not traffic or air pollution, but whether flourishes such
proposed design
The new ‘flagship’ store has elements of old world luxury mixed with the modern pale green design. Designed by architect Roberto Baciocchi, the flagship has entrances on three facades facing major shopping streets. The décor inside the store, with its black and white checkered marble flooring and luxurious crystal furnishings, is a modern tribute to the original Prada store, which opened in 1913 in Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. While the new store uses the typical retail elements of lighting to emphasize and create a sophisticated, alluring ambiance, it lacks the high design of the previous Prada flagship stores. While it is important to fit in the context of the site, the city’s ruling to not allow Koolhaas’ design was unnecessary and didn’t help with Prada’s marketing strategy. While Prada’s original concept was for the architecture to act as a powerful channel to boost economic growth and international recognition, the new design lacks the branding that Prada has created in the last few years. Sources:
current design
Rem Koolhaas. El Croquis 131/32: Rem Koolhaas-OMA I. Madrid: Croquis Editorial, 2006, 148-197.
runway venues Prada moved away from the rigid configuration of the traditional runway some years ago, instead choosing to collaborate with AMO/Rem Koolhaas each season. Guests sat on individual terraced islands scattered throughout the room. John Galliano took the fashion crowd out of town to SKart, a go-Kart racing rink. Traditional runway venues take guests out of the real world, put them in a black box, and allow an intimate relationship with the clothing, hoping to create feelings of lust and desire. Now some runway venues are bringing in glimpses of the outside world, whether making models walk in everyday directions besides the traditional up and down of the catwalk, or even taking the experience to an everyday place, like a go-kart racing rink. This new direction of the runway venue could change the attitude of something unattainable that we lust after to an everyday staple item that can be worn anywhere. Dior Homme Kris Van Assche commissioned a specially constructed tent in the Jardins de l’Observatoire (Gardens of Observatory) in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, leaving an avenue of trees for models to walk through. Guests entered a darkened tent. As the show began the walls blew away, resulting in an almost open-air space. For being a garden that is famed for it’s calm atmosphere, this is a clever way to introduce the intense, fastpaced atmosphere of the fashion industry. By removing the tent walls, the contrast of the two environments becomes visible to the audience, creating a unique runway experience that is different from the typical indoor runway venues. While the serene park let’s you enjoy the simple pleasures of life, hosting a couture fashion show in the avenue somehow changes the negative connotation of fashion to one that is more about the beauty and the style of good design. This approach of introducing nature and the outside world to fashion can be very
powerful and successful. Louis Vuitton In the Palais de Tokyo, models came up from below stairs and walked in a square formation. Having the dressing room under the venue instead of the traditional behind the venue can possibly save valuable retail space that show off the brand more and generate cash flow. Kris Van Assche Van Assche chose the entrance of the Université Jussieu with its indoor/outdoor feel (that he also had at Dior Homme). The space was completely open giving onlookers a rare chance to see a show. Again, introducing the outside world to fashion allows guests to more clearly see themselves in the outfit.
communicating the brand message through shop design Architecture can influence fashion consumption. Fashion is a primary form of self-expression as well as group identity, and has become an object of obsession in our culture. In terms of production practices and treatment of garment workers, fashion often expresses social and ethical complexities. We also face considerable environmental challenges involving the production, transportation, maintenance and disposal of clothes. By allowing a glimpse into the production cycle, a fashion house could promote not only their latest trends, but also their humanitarian stance. This fashion house can raise awareness on the effects of the apparel process on the environment, the economy and the wages of others. The foundation begins with a design school in the vicinity of a high-end retail store with views of the manufacturing factory that produces the garments being designed and sold. A runway venue will exhibit the garments and influence how the public understands and experiences the product. A recycling center for disposal of the garment will also support the fashion cycle. By exposing realities within consumerism, the true relationship between consumption and production in the fashion industry can be exploited. Apparel companies like the Gap don’t own the factories where their clothes are made, nor do they need to have contact with the people who make them.1 Basic economic principles have caused them to contract out the work to companies in poor countries.2 Because of the size and global power these retailers wield, they can tell the contractors exactly how fast and how cheaply they want their clothes to be made. The contractors, in turn, pay the lowest possible wages and force their workers to work long hours and to complete large amounts of clothing in order to keep their jobs. If the workers try to take action for better pay and working conditions, the retailers say they will give their contracts to other companies, or move to other countries.3 With increased globalization, actual wages in the clothing sector are decreasing at an alarming speed.4 Globally, the working conditions in the sector are also a cause for concern. The working
conditions are increasingly characterized by large-scale exploitation. Although many retailers may not care about the people who make their clothes, they certainly care about the perceptions of people who buy their clothes. When companies like the Gap sell their clothes, they are also selling an image: the idea is that when people buy a pair of jeans, they see themselves as ‘buying’ a piece of the trendy, fashionable lifestyle that the jeans represent. Retailers want people to focus on this fantasy when they go shopping; they don’t want people to know how their clothes are really made. That’s why campaigns that tell people the truth about the garment industry can be effective; people see the ugly reality instead of the fantasy. They may feel bad if they bought the clothes, instead of feeling good. Concerned about their image of supporting such practices, they may fear being ostracized by their peers. Pretty advertisements and fancy facades disguise the hidden practices of the production of apparel, but this project will expose this reality and make use of the architecture as a three-dimensional communication device that provokes lasting and meaningful experiences to help educate consumers and promote a new lifestyle. The brand will give the place an added symbolic value. Branding and architecture have in recent decades developed an intimate relationship in which they feed off each other. Architecture and urban planning have become brands with cities such as Bilbao, Shanghai, Dubai and New York that have used architecture to enhance their image and elevate their position in the global village. As part of an attempt to redefine urban, regional, and in some cases national identities, architecture has become integral to branding and vice versa.5 This principle can also work at a smaller scale of a retail store. Along with the quality of merchandise, the attention to detail, and the brand advertising, the shop design will entice customers to shop at this store. It will create a
unique and captivating shopping experience that will help to build the brands and the retailers’ identities of being local, fashionably responsible, and sweat shop free. While many of the surrounding stores are spare, white boxes, this project will need to interest customers via the environment with a sharpened point of view. The development will create a building that showcases innovative designs tailored to maximize the shopping experience, transforming this flagship store into cultural phenomena and heightening consciousness of the brand. With the exploration of the relationship between consumer culture, fashion and architecture, this fashion space produces an intense experience - an experience that remains with the buyer long after they leave the store, hopefully at times where they may be encouraged to purchase non-responsible apparel. With a store that exposes the realities of the fashion world, it is absolutely necessary to create an authentic place where the customers can fundamentally and physically experience the unique values and offerings, which inevitably increases customer satisfaction and thereby profit. An imaginative environment is demanded to convey the company’s unique personality, ethical position and social commitment.6 The values of the company need to be shared with the public through architecture, helping the public live the brand. If the most important communication objectives of a retail brand are to create store traffic, expand the spending of existing customers and strengthen bonds with customers, then the store becomes the most important communication tool. The brand is made in the store. A well-designed store can blur the line between architecture and the brand it represents. It is important, and rather difficult to create an experience that entices rather than assails like a billboard in Times Square. Gothic Cathedrals gave an immediate spiritual feeling once inside. Worshipers and visitors alike feel the religion and emotional dimension that has been translated from and into the architecture. These monuments express
the values of the society that built them. Retail design needs to harness the same power found in Gothic cathedrals and apply it to the building design.7 The store is the face and the voice of the retail brand. A consumer who enters the store with the wrong expectations, or has a negative experience in the store, will leave disappointed and might never come back. If the brand promise and the brand performance are not aligned, there can never be a strong retail brand.8 A unique, consistent brand communication language that consumers will experience everywhere (from the advertisement to the store design, from the truck or the website to the salespeople’s outfits) can give the retail brand a distinguishable identity.9 The most important objectives of store design are to communicate the positioning and personality, add value to the merchandise and achieve efficiency and effectiveness.10 Like the Prada epicenters, a store for a brand need not be identical at every location across the globe, but shares the same experience. The signature brand transforms the product - purses and shoes - into an environment, one which consumers transcend material satisfaction and experience emotional fulfillment. The store design is a form of communication, so it should be aligned with the retail brand. Every
retail design tells the customer a story. In this store the customer will be able to see, feel, hear, and smell the retail brand. Positioning and brand personality in particular can be expressed well through the store design. An ideological brand with a wholesome personality such as this one will try to translate its core values into the materials of the store design. This store design must confirm and strengthen the known values of the brand. The store must make a real brand statement to encourage responsible fashion. The appearance of the building strongly influences the brand perception. The consumer will form an opinion on the retail brand’s positioning and personality based on the exterior, and on this basis alone some customers will decide to pass the store.11 In high-traffic locations, store windows can draw customers and communicate a clear brand promise. Store windows can entertain as well as entice. The windows then form a transition between the exterior and the interior of the store. If there are only a few exclusive products in the store window, it will be clear to consumers, even without having seen any price tags, that it is an expensive, exclusive store. Other important retail design components that influence the perception of the brand include the interior that helps communicate the brand personality, lighting that adds drama to the merchandise, layout that is important to navigating through the store, and fixtures to display the merchandise.12 The emotional differences between this store and the ones surrounding it will be a very important factor in the design. The store must become a strong brand to differentiate itself from the lower priced competitions and make the public aware of the values it holds. With the architecture, the project will campaign on a range of social, environmental and ethical issues while living out its values that require it to act in a socially responsible manner. The company’s mission statement will describe itself as dedicated to the pursuit of social and environmental change, and its support of these values over time as guiding principles, define its principled ethical position. It took an explicit stance on the natural orientation of its products and its ethical supply chain and promoted three basic value messages: supporting com-
fashionably responsible munity trade, defending human rights and protecting the planet. The strength of these values will underpin the consistency of its branding. In its internal and external communications, it will demonstrate a commitment to discover who they are.
Ellen Rosen. Making Sweatshops: The Globalization of the US Apparel Industry. London: University of California Press, 2002: 111. 1
2
Ibid. (Rosen, 2002) 45.
3
Ibid. (Rosen, 2002) 221.
4
Ibid. (Rosen, 2002) 223.
5
Ana Klingmann, “Brandism”, The Slatin Report, 2006.
6
Ibid. (Klingmann, 2006)
7
Ibid. (Klingmann, 2006)
Herausgegeben Van Otto Riewoldt. Brandscaping. Berlin: Birkhauser-Publishers for Architecture, 2002: 3-4. 8
Corinna Dean. The Inspired Retail Space: attract customers, build branding, increase volume. Gloucester, Mass.: Rockport Publishers, 2003: 86-7. 9
Ian Luna. Retail: Architecture and Shopping. New York: Rizzoli InternationalPublications, Inc., 2005: 37. 10
Shonquis Moreno. Dress Code: The Architecture of Fashion. Amsterdam: Frame Publishers, 2006: 22. 11
12
Ibid (Moreno, 2006) 26.
1. designers and companies who make responsible choices in design, production, and distribution 2. to be eco-conscious-- using sustainable, organic, or recycled materials, low impact or chemical free-dyes, and earth friendly manufacturing processes 3. to be socially responsible in their labor practices, paying fair wages, giving back to the community and supporting social change message from re-dress.com you are what you wear fashionable independent affluent change beauty cost possess control so pretty! mirror choice money shop more more work play pay workers human cost labor dirt children poison price disease pollution powerless destruction death what’s fasionable about you are what wears you fashion evolution change more than your clothes
eco-concious sustainable fibers fabrics or materials made from highly renewable resources such as bamboo, beech, or cork why bamboo? bamboo grows quickly without the aid of pesticides and fertilizers why organic cotton? traditionally grown cotton crops account for nearly 25% of worldwide pesticide herbicide use recycled materials reusing, recycling, and repurposing saves materials from the dump and landfills while saving the resources that would been using in producing new goods
how apparel is recycled collection accept clothing at store sorting the clothing is sorted into garments for reuse and for recycling reuse clothes that can still be worn are distributed to developing countries or sold 1.
material recycling clothing that is not suitable for reuse as described above is recycled into fiber, and used to make apparel, thermal insulation, work gloves, cotton rags, etc. 2.
3.
fuel recycling clothing that is not suitable for reuse and material recycling is recycled into power-generated fuel
where apparel comes from sweatshop conditions reported by workers in factories supplying leading brands. ‘Publicly owned’ means that the company has shareholders and ‘privately owned’ means that it does not.
li & fung limited global subcontracting network.
UMBRO a privately owned British company
EUROPE
socially responsible
MADE IN CHINA Workers are refused time off when ill. If workers leave the facotry they lose a month’s back pay.
KOREA
CHINA
PUMA a publically owned German company
$729
sweatshop-free manufactured in a factory which provides good working conditions and does not use child labor
PAKISTAN
INDIA
$1192
fair labor/living wages the designer or company assures that manufacturing workers are being paid a living wage and treated fairly handmade designers who place value on personal handiwork over mass manufacturing. this philosophy results in more care and attention in production--for the earth as well as for the product and the creation of one-of-a-kind pieces that are more valuable to the end-user, resulting in a longer
BANGLADESH
$671
THAILAND $3868
HONG KONG
CAMBODIA VIETNAM
SRI LANKA
INDONESIA $3059
designs, purchase orders from buyer (brand name) companies manufacturing instructions, managerial and commercial control, etc. completed garments
labor costs per worker in manufacturing, 2000
MADE IN THAILAND Women work double shifts and cannot refuse overtime because wages are so low
TAIWAN
USA
$28,907
ADIDAS a publically owned German company MADE IN CAMBODIA Workers are required to work long hours without breaks. Trips to the bathroom require their card to be stamped by a supervisor. During low seasons their pay is so low it is hard to survive on it. FILA a privately owned US company MADE IN INDONESIA Workers are humiliated and verbally abused on a daily basis. Women are subjected to sexual harassment by male supervisors and management. Source: Oxfam International, 2004.
how we buy
Most customers prefer shopping to the right, probably because most are right-handed. As a result the righthand side of the aisle will receive most attention. Most customers prefer outside aisles. In general, the aisles on the inside of the store will be visited less. Customers prefer a wide aisle to a narrow one, and try to avoid corners. Customers follow a certain buying rhythm. They will shop faster when they are approaching the checkout. They do not like to turn round. Customers like to see something exciting at the end of the aisle: for example, a strong display or a nice, interesting product presentation. Such a focus point is an extra stimulant to walk into the aisle. Customers like a long aisle to be broken by a cross aisle or a surprising display. That makes shopping lessdull. Waiting times, obstacles and queues at the checkout cause lots of annoyance for the customer.
fashion and architecture history research paper for arch 6341, survey of architectural history II with professor m. sabatino, spring 2007
Historically, it has been the quality of merchandise, the attention to detail, and brand advertising that enticed customers to shop at certain retail stores. Today, perhaps more than ever before, the architectural interiors of such spaces are creating a unique and captivating shopping experience that are literally helping to build the brands. While many fashion houses spent much of the past decades creating spare, white boxes, architects and interior designers are now enlisted to captivate customers via environments with a sharpened point of view. The development of retail architecture over the decades has created buildings showcasing innovative designs tailored to maximize the shopping experience, transforming flagship stores into cultural phenomena and heightening consciousness of the brand. With the exploration of the relationship between consumer culture, fashion and architecture, fashion spaces produce a sense that there is some more intense experience offered--an experience that remains with the buyer long after they leave the store. There are many parallels between architecture and fashion. To start with, both share the same techniques (weaving, pleating, folding, draping at different scales), and both work with scale and geometry, texture, color and ornamentation. While clothes are miniature dwellings, buildings are enormous garments (Moreno, 28). Both trace their roots back to archaic textile panels; those adapted for use on the body became clothing, while those fastened to fixed frameworks became buildings (Quinn, 2). The word design means ‘to conceive or fashion’, fashion means ‘to give shape or form to’, and architect means ‘to form or devise’. Since both disciplines are makers, architecture and fashion are expected to reinforce one another (Moreno, 28). I believe most fashion designers aspire to have their own haute couture house. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and
sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. These personally tailored outfits are personally designed spaces for the client—a lot like what architecture is. Described as ‘the last remaining form of public activity’, few activities unite the general public like shopping. Just like fashion, shopping is constantly reinvented, reformulated and redefined, mirroring even the most subtle changes in society (Quinn, 38). Urban centers are increasingly distinguished by the production of fashion labels and brand logos fixed to buildings, advertisements and shopping bags. Retail architecture is, effectively, rebranding urban space (Quinn, 39). Buildings for retail have changed considerably over time. During the Middle Ages, market halls were constructed to deal with one type of article, and usually adjoined the producer (baker, tailor, and cobbler) (Chung, 43). In the 19th century, arcades, a street of many different shops, were developed in France. The arcade soon developed into the department store, a large store with the notion of many counters, each dealing with a different kind of article. The birth of consumerism soon followed when department stores introduced fixed prices, making haggling unnecessary and browsing more enjoyable (Chung, 46).
International Style was becoming more popular. International Style identified, categorized and expanded upon characteristics common to modernism across the world which had its origin from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson. As a result, the focus was more on the stylistic aspects of modernism. Architects were striving for simplification, honesty and clarity. Buzz words were “functionalism” and “less is more” (Israel, 19). After World War II, the new profession of store planning and design was born with a plain and naïve foundation. Planning of most stores consisted of open, regular and rectilinear plans with continuity of flooring materials, ceilings, and lights (Israel, 22). Decorative murals with birds, ribbons and flowers, and romantic and poetic images with feminine allusions and associations were also a popular trend (Israel, 23). Décor and fixtures were in non strategic locations (Israel, 24). Retail architecture during this time wasn’t aiming to get a customers attention, and seemed that its form followed function.
In the 1920’s, with the rise of the suburb and automobile culture in the United States, a new style of shopping center was developed away from downtown. The first shopping mall was constructed, which incorporated elements from both the arcade and the department store (Borking, 18). The concept was pioneered by the Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen (Borking, 19).
By the 1960’s, store planning became more experimental, using angles, polygons and curves (Israel, 29). During this age of counterculture, the rebirth of individualism and of human responsiveness appeared. Consumers were interested in clothing, fashion and handicrafts, and they demanded color in everything (Israel, 27). With pop art, historic preservation, and community activism, Robert Venturi’s manifesto Complexity and Contradiction of Architecture (1966) hurried a process of disintegration in design away from the standardized clarity and logic of the International Style. Postmodernism as expressed in architecture was a rebellion that parallels the restless counterculture movements transforming all of western society (Israel, 28). The grey suited managers of the 1960’s demanded grey architecture to conduct their business.
During Eisenhower’s administration, more than half of all United States wage earners were in the service sector, which aided in the emergence of consumer economy. While Eisenhower preached for conformity, the film and television industry overshadowed all aspects of mass culture by focusing on revolt and alienation (Israel, 18). In architecture, the
Store planning reflected postmodernism movements by adding excitement and variety (Israel, 29), and effectively using defined selling spaces at the center of the large building rectangle (Israel, 31). Stores converted the large, open, continuous department store spaces into a complex pattern of separate, articulated spaces, each of which could
express the varieties of lifestyles present in society (Israel, 31). A strong design image became important, and it was vital for each retail shop to express store character, image and personality (Israel, 34). By the 1970’s, there was a demise of the International Style in architecture and an eruption of postmodernism. A more sustained renewed search for contemporary, different and enriched expression, architecture was emerging as a pluralistic expression of richness and diversity instead of functionalism and uniformity (Israel, 38). Retail planning focused on different departments, sometimes elevating a special department several steps. Escalators in the center of the store became an icon—they opened up the store by the use of monumental spaces, skylights, and imaginative architectural systems (Israel, 41). The corporate department store style emerged, and shoppers had a difficulty identifying the store in which he or she was shopping. Retailers began the search for identity, personality, and image (Israel, 43). By the 1970’s, the managers who were in grey suits where now wearing corduroy suits and flowered ties with bright shirts, and that led to a more colorful and noisy architecture. Under Ronald Reagan, America’s taste turned conservative in the 1980’s. Postmodernism and classicized buildings came to epitomize a movement that expressed establishment, values, affluence, and elitism (Israel, 50). The planning of retail space continued to infuse variations of creativity and originality into the center core and zonal plans (Israel, 54). Escalator’s structure and configuration as the geometric center of store became more lavish (Israel, 56). The goal was for a sophisticated, theatrical excitement (Israel, 54). Stores were obsessed with finding a signature. There was a new consciousness of regional culture and style—a Burdine’s group of department stores advertised itself as ‘Florida’s department store and unashamedly exploited motif taken from the palm tress as its own icon (Israel, 56). Retail design is quickly learning new ways to entice customers by creating a unique and captivating shopping experience. The 1990’s witnessed significant shifts in fashion’s
business strategies, which emerged as prestigious fashion houses were purchased by global conglomerates. The fashion retail environment became increasingly corporative by marketing initiatives to create strong brand identities with global appeal (Quinn, 40). Aware of architecture’s role in shaping consumer consciousness, fashion’s new business tycoons forged an aesthetic dialogue between retail architecture and high fashion. Fashion space began to echo the minimalism of art galleries and modernist museums (Quinn, 40). The term “boutique cistercianism” (minimalism) was created. Architect John Pawson designed Calvin Klein’s New York flagship store in SoHo by using discreetly expensive materials and a restrained use of color (Luna, 27). Architecture critic Deyan Sudjic responded to the new style of retail, “in such a setting fashion looked as if it mattered, as if it were worth the money” (Luna, 29). The architects behind this new generation of fashion retail openly acknowledged their acquiescence to corporate culture. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of design by architects in particular situations and control the aesthetics based on what some high managers in an office determine to be the most successful. But this has not necessarily been to either industry’s detriment: architects such as Rem Koolhaas have interpreted this approach to fashion space with characteristic flair, moving away from the finely detailed minimalism that prevailed in retail architecture for more than a decade. Today retailers are developing strategies whose goal it is to offer an even more sophisticated and targeted lifestyle (Frisa, 33). The increasingly visually astute customer prefers to shop in intimate and challenging environments (Dean, 7). Fashion’s ability to shape urban space is not a recent phenomenon: Walter Benjamin’s fascination with the urban realm drew him closer to social activities like shopping. His Arcades Project (Passagen Werk) updated the functions of both private and public spaces, articulating their importance to fashion, architecture and the role of consumption in construction identity. As a socioeconomic activity, shopping is shaping the type
of experiences architecture is designed to evoke. In this ‘experience economy”, what companies sell now is ‘experiences’, experiences carefully designed to evoke specific economies. Retailers used to believe that the customer would never notice the details, but today, they are aware that the retail industry exists for the customer, and that the customer is not unworthy or imperceptive. No longer will the customer look beyond a shoebox storefront—even if the goods inside are expensive. Customers have come to expect more—more creativity, more comfort, more excitement, and more value. This is mostly accomplished with greater detail. Great store design exists in the details---from the light fixture to the flooring—the details not only attract customers, but captures and keeps them (Pegler, 8). Retail spaces are becoming indistinguishable from art galleries creating a space where consumerism and culture are merging (Dean, 52). Brands with long histories have opted for museum and gallery like spaces for their stores. Co-opting the museum program, works of art inhabit the reception areas (Luna, 22). Garments have become characters that perform on an architectural stage. Retail designers are refusing to draw distinctions between art, architecture, fashion and commerce (Moreno, 28). Interiors resemble where the clothing would be worn, therefore giving the customer the overall effect (Luna, 28). Customers are invited to linger in the environment—there is no flagship store without a bar, lounge or restaurant (Dean, 53). With museums where places where tickets are sold are reached only after passing through the shop, and with retail shops that present clothes like works of art, it is now becoming difficult to differentiate between spaces for commercial and cultural use. The experience comes first, and the purchases, preferably, follow. Architect Adolf Loos identified architecture with clothing. In his 1898 essay The Principle of Dressing, Loos acknowledged the primacy of dress as a basic shelter, encouraging architects to first engage with the textiles as a method of grasping the meanings and aesthetics of dwelling, then
employ architecture to sustain these principles in built form. He believed the primary task was to create a pleasant environment in which expensive items of clothing could be selected, tried on and sold in an atmosphere of complete calm (Hanisch, 38). For most consumers, the decision to buy isn’t based on what one could afford, but on self portrayal (Hanisch, 39). Architects take this advice and translate the style of fashion into the language of architecture. Fabulous retail architecture is responsible for this emotional reaction that we are paying extra money for. It’s the feeling of being successful and higher status by buying high fashion brand names, such as Prada. Flagship shops are a relatively new phenomenon, the most dramatic statement a designer can make about their label. The building is most likely set in an exclusive area, its exterior architecture and interior design carefully chosen to amplify the image and status of the label. Generous proportions, size and scale are important, as vast expanses of space and a cathedral-like atmosphere never fail to impress (Quinn, 43). As flagship stores for famous designers get more and more glamorous, the architects of these stores raise their profiles with multitudes of influential, trend-conscious shoppers approaching the stores’ doorsteps daily (Hanisch, 28). Flagship stores entice architects—the tension between the momentary nature of fashion and the relative permanence of the built environment draws most creative problem solvers. Flagship boutiques can be seen as the logical end of historic mercantilist and capitalist processes that attended the birth of the department store in the late 19th century (Luna, 23). While the goal of architecture is to achieve sustainability, it also maintains a fashion-conscious concern for the look—a principle that serves the interests of its fashion client far beyond the material structure of the shop (Quinn, 41). The architecture is expanding into fun and trendy categories that appeal to sophisticated, fashion-conscious consumers. It’s trying to give them something different, something unique and exciting. Retail architecture is attempting to give
consumers an experience that they could never gain from online shopping. The aspirations we have are more and more identified by the brands advertised through architecture, which is how companies are pushing their brands recently. Designers create ‘aspirational brands’ that tell us how we should live, and then put forward merchandise that will help us get there. These brands create a new need, and then fulfill it. The intent is to make us unhappy with our current experiences, so we want to spend money on enhanced experiences, and feel better. The design of stores reflects the increasing influence of retail on culture. Miuccia Prada is the most visible case study of a conscious program of architectural patronage for which added value is the principal motivation for good design (Luna, 28). Prada has three flagship stores—in New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles—and has handpicked each architect. Most notably Herzog and de Meuron, the Swiss architectural practice, was commissioned to design the Prada headquarters in Italy; and Rem Koolhaas, the cultural living icon of architecture, was called on to design Prada’s main showroom in New York City (Dean, 7), both as a marketing and branding concept as well as a differentiating feature (Luna, 33). Although Koolhaas likens the contemporary practice of shopping to an incurable disease, his retail designs for Prada effectively make him the fashion industry’s house doctor (Quinn, 47). Koolhaas was approached to redefine the Prada shop experience just as he was completing The Harvard GSD Guide to Shopping I, a two year student-based research project on the current state and future implications of shopping in the world. The research fed into the design of the showroom that opened in New York in 2001 to great acclaim (Dean, 8). Koolhaas redefined the shopping landscape, and rethought the identities of those who inhabit it and the meaning of shopping in material culture (Quinn, 40). As Koolhaas stat-
ed: “Museums, libraries, airports, hospitals, and schools are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from shopping. Their adoption of retail for survival has unleashed an enormous wave of commercial entrapment that has transformed museum goers, researchers, travelers, patients, and students into customers. What if the strategy was to reverse the equation, so that customers were no longer identified as consumers, but recognized as researchers, students, patients, museum goers? What if the shopping experience were not one of impoverishment, but of enrichment?” (Koolhaas, 84) The new market he has created directly reflects changing perceptions of luxury and status (Quinn, 41). A decade earlier, the minimalism of the Calvin Klein flagship store on Madison Avenue by John Pawson became an integral part of the identity of the fashion house. The handsome neo-classical structure has been subtly transformed by the deft insertion of huge panels of glass that have the effect of turning the whole building into a showcase. The installation of these panels involved closing the street to traffic to allow the glass to be craned into position. Inside, the immediate impression is of stone floors, white walls, and meticulous precision (Pawson). John Pawson wrote, “for me the practice of architecture is about creating spaces where people feel comfortable and where a particular set of actions feels natural. On a wider scale, the minimal style was adopted almost universally for shop interiors. However, the supremacy of the minimalist style is now being challenged by a pluralist approach to design (Dean, 7). But overall, architecture’s role in retail involves the balance approach to design, accessibility, function and identity (Dean, 8). Donna Karen, with the city of New York inextricably connected to her label, opened her flagship shop in Manhattan. Designer Janson Goldstein captured the spirit of the city and featured material typical of the urban scene outside. Concrete floors, exposed ducts and tubular stainless steel create an atmosphere almost antithetical to the quiet temples of minimalism favored by Calvin Klein down the street
(Quinn, 45). Issey Miyake’s showroom in TriBeCa was chosen for its strong industrial aesthetic. Formerly a loft space, Miyake’s New York showroom was designed by Gordon Kipping, who exposed rough ceiling joists and opened the space to the basement displays with walkways of reinforced glass. Frank Gehry was commissioned to fill the space with his signature architecture, fitting the shop with a broken stream of metallic ribbons hovering at ceiling height or placed vertically among the column supports and the staircase (Quinn, 46). Architecture is packaged like fashion here, reinventing itself as a commodity and engaging with economies of scale (Quinn, 47). Architecture has become a powerful tool in the fashion business. Fashion space reflects structures of economic power, social interaction and commodification, yet provides sites for curiosity, exploration and resistance (Quinn 33). Perfectly poised and detailed shopping environments help to launch and build the corporate identities of the most conspicuous and prevalent fashion houses worldwide. As clothing designers diversify into all sorts of product ranges from house ware to sports gear, and expand in the virtual world of ecommerce, the architectural image of built shops is becoming all more apparent and all pervasive (Hanisch, 33). Styles and lifestyles are fast becoming uniform under labels and definitions of fashion, and as an industry and a cultural form (Frisa, 88). An effective visual—whether architectural design or interior design—has its purpose. It creates awareness of brands and products, communicates freshness and excitement, and enhances the goods and boosts sales (Pegler, 9). When products and store environment become truly interdependent, a synergy is created (Peglar, 8). The flagship Prada stores are one of the more recent phenomena of retail architecture becoming a total declaration of brand (Moreno, 28). Architecture is adapting itself to fashion. In earlier days, the focus was on department stores, but now every big name in
fashion wants a flagship store. Fashion houses want magnificent architecture but also avant-garde in return for their substantial investment. The wish is to utilize architecture as an advertising instrument for the label--working on branding (building up a label) to help shape the identity of a business (Luna, 22). Stores such as the flagship Prada in New York City are described as ‘promotional architecture’, a term introduced by Dietmar Steiner. In this context, the architecture is a commodity in itself, designed to attract a particular consumer identity (Quinn, 42). With mass consumption in mind, promotional architecture targets specific ranges of people by creating an architecture of difference—cultural affiliations, ethnic backgrounds, age demographics, and style tribes are all signified within its aesthetic (Quinn, 43). This new type of ‘promotional’ architecture in this environment of total domination of consumerism has made fashion labels such as Prada and Calvin Klein household names. Indeed, the institution of fashion could not survive without its stores--or could it? In its mission to conquer the space around it, fashion is transacted within multiple realms, both physical and virtual. Fashion’s virtual existence defies containment by garments or architecture, but is no less potent in its ability to construct identities and mediate physical transactions. In fact, the boundaries between real world of fashion and its virtual counterpart have already begun to blur (Quinn, 54). Websites, in their creative imaging, are conceived as built environments. Although the digital frameworks are known as ‘web architecture’, the concept of architecture used in the Web context defines a new architectural language— many United States e-commerce sites refer to their opening page as the ‘storefront’ (Quinn, 54). Most fashion sites are analogous to their retail counterparts, their tone and image often constituting annexes to the shop’s architectural style (Quinn, 55). Lifestyle change and convenience have become an impor-
tant factor in people’s lives (Dean, 132). Retail industries have put in a lot of effort to win consumers’ leisure time, especially so they avoid an excursion on the Internet (Pegler, 9). With the arrival of the Internet in the last few years and the major adoption of credit cards, it was not difficult to predict the growth of Internet shopping. It offers all the advantages of the old catalogue shopping such as wide choice, discount prices, and no pressure selling, together with modern technology to manage and track orders. Unfortunately because consumers have no physical interaction with the product, greater emphasis on having detailed, objective production information is necessary when shopping online. While fashion draws heavily upon architecture to interpret the spatial needs of modern human, fashion also plays a role in shaping modern architecture. Examining the meanings and locations of space helps identify the phenomena of fashion space. Retail architecture and fashion in cyber space both have unfolded into a phenomenon of spectacle and a synthesis of form and fiction. The design or retail spaces have a contemporary homogeneity between architectural production and the prevalent modes of conspicuous consumption expressed with much persuasive intent. The practice, whose conceptual backbone is exploration of the relationship between futuristic technology and architecture, is in hot demand by a long list of retail clients. Architecture has become a powerful tool in the fashion business. Perfectly poised and detailed shopping environments help to launch and build the corporate identities of the most conspicuous and prevalent fashion houses worldwide. As clothes designers diversify into all sorts of product ranges from house wares to sports gear, and expand in the virtual world of e-commerce, the architectural image of built shops is becoming all the more apparent and pervasive and necessary. Like fashion itself, a retail boutique is premised on constant renewal, in many respects the exact opposite of sustainable architecture. An architect working with fashion retail has to understand the marketing of brands, and in particular the need for those brands to constantly develop and reinvent themselves.
The modern meaning of the word brand is ‘the emotional reaction a person has towards a company or product”. Think of what Prada, Calvin Klein, Donna Karen, Gucci or Louis Vuitton mean to consumers. Consumers have a feeling about each of those companies and those companies are all working on trying to get you to feel a certain way about them. They have designs on your emotions. Unfortunately, the more contact we get to branding designed to activate our emotions, the more desensitized we get to these manipulations. So companies, especially fashion designers, trigger the emotion further, trying to get the same level of reaction with architecture.
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