Following the opening of the first prototype store in Washington DC, a second store has now opened in Tokyo’s Ginza district. The project continues David Chipperfield Architects Milan’s successful collaboration with AKRIS, a fashion house that began life in Saint Gallen, Switzerland, a city with a long history of embroidery.
More compact than the first store, the design is developed over two long and narrow floorplates. Similarly to the store in Washington DC, this second prototype stresses suspension and lightness to present the collections, with display elements formed of shelves and hangers supported by a series of taut cables, where the products are presented as if on a stage within an architectural box of limestone and wood. A third prototype store will open in Chicago, USA.
Image © Sohei Oya