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Prada opens second high-style store in Tokyo

Maggie Koerth

July 1, 2003

Building Design and Construction

The second “Epicenter Store” commissioned by fashion giant Prada and designed to link fashion and architecture opened last month in Tokyo. Inspired by the shape of a crystal, the façade of the new store is covered in a combination of convex, concave, and flat glass panels. The different shapes create multifaceted views intended to present an ever-changing perspective of Prada products, people, and the Tokyo skyline.

Designed by Basel, Switzerland-based architects Herzon & de Meuron and contracted by the Takanaka Corp., the building’s outer beauty is more than skin deep. The glass grid is actively linked to the vertical cores of the new store and supports the ceilings. This focus on vertical volume allows the building to carry the maximum gross floor area permitted by local zoning laws, while leaving part of the lot to serve as an open, public area.

In 1999, Prada announced plans to create a series of stores featuring avant-garde design by major architects from around the world. The Tokyo store follows the 2001 opening of Prada Broadway in New York, designed by OMA/AMO/Rem Koolhaas. A third firm, Tokyo’s Kazujo Seijima+Rjue Nishizawa/Sanaa, was commissioned to design in-store beauty shops for other Prada stores.

Prada’s goal for these projects is to “reinvent the concept of shopping” by creating innovative environments that fuse consumerism and culture through a focus on individual perception.

Architect Jacques Herzog (WHO IS THIS GUY?) says the project was beneficial. “This has been an extremely exciting joint effort and a forum for a very interesting intellectual exchange with Prada,” he says. “The resulting building challenges our perceptive energies in the most radical way.”