newitalianblood

I was asked to design a complex building to house three LVMH Group fashion boutiques and various offices. For this project, I decided to use three types of stone of different thickness, namely, 4 mm, 75 μm and 30 μm. Ordinarily, a building is designed as a composition of diverse dichotomies between the two juxtaposed elements. Examples of this are walls versus windows, transparency versus opacity, and the glittery façade of a commercial installation versus the solid façade of an office building. For this project, however, I decided not to resort to exploiting this dichotomy but instead to resolve the opposing forces of architecture into a continuous spectrum. For this purpose, I brought together three types of transparent, see-through stones that are subtly different from each other. I basically “wrapped” the building’s three stories and above where the offices are housed, using three types of see-through stone.