AWARD-WINNING MARC JACOBS TOKYO FLAGSHIP BUILDING OPENS in Aoyama shopping district, Japan by STEPHAN JAKLITSCH

New York – Stephan Jaklitsch Architects (SJA) has designed a new Tokyo flagship building for Marc Jacobs Collection. Located on Omotesando-dori in the Aoyama shopping district, the building is the first ground-up store for the Marc Jacobs brand and will give Marc Jacobs a distinctive presence in this neighborhood of luxury stores. The design is a response to the immediate context (bordered by world-renowned architecture and a quiet residential neighborhood) and the desire to represent the tradition of craft that is inherent in Japanese construction.

Aoyama Store

• Architects: STEPHAN JAKLITSCH

• Location: Aoyama shopping district, Japan.

• Project Area: 2,800 square feet.

• Photographs: Liao Yusheng, Nacasa Partners.

The store opening was celebrated on December 2nd with a party attended by celebrities from the Japanese fashion and art worlds. Rinka (the newest model of the Marc Jacobs “Protect the Skin You’re In” T-shirt campaign), singer Ken Hirai, and Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, were among the guests.

Aoyama Store

The three-story building is approximately 2,800 square feet, including two main sales floors and a lower-level space with a small sales area and storage. Because zoning requirements limited the occupiable building height to two above-grade floors, SJA employed a common building element known as a kosakubutsu to double the visual height of the building. The kosakubutsu sits above the building’s official “shadow line” – a distinct and continuous break required between the occupiable building and additional structure.

Aoyama Store

The building façade is conceptually striated into three horizontal zones; a void, rock and lantern. The ground floor “void” houses accessories and is completely transparent and visually open to the street. Women’s ready-to-wear is housed in the more private “rock” – a solid form clad in striated terra-cotta – and the “lantern,” or kosakubutsu, serves as a beacon and sign for the building. The lower level houses men’s ready-to-wear and accessories.

SJA’s strategy for the interiors of the building was to simultaneously extend the design notes that run consistently throughout most of the Marc Jacobs stores internationally, while making them special to their Aoyama context. At the ground level, the goal was to have no visual interruption between the street and store’s interior. A continuous water-glass façade blurs the distinction between inside and out. The Zimbabwe granite that covers the entire first floor extends out to street, forming the sidewalk in front of the building. The black-and-white color palette on the first floor relates to the building’s “rock and lantern” exterior. Top-lit, white Corian shelving lines two of the three walls, and mirrored glass at the top and bottom of the shelves provide a visual draw from the street.

A circular glass and polished steel cash wrap houses accessories behind glass with a white gradient that lends a misty, ethereal quality. On the far wall, floor-to-ceiling polished steel and glass vitrines house two aquariums and border the stairway, which is made of dark East Indian laurel wood.

Aoyama Store

The second level is more consistent with design features of other Marc Jacobs Collection stores, and has a distinctly intimate feel. Sycamore shelving and custom seating by Christian Liaigre lend to the living room quality, while custom pendant lighting fixtures of hand-blown black and clear glass, and mirrored dressing room doors add light to the space.

Interior View

The lower level is the smallest of the three spaces, and is the “cocoon” of the building. The walls and shelving are wrapped in sycamore, and SJA designed a geometric-patterned glass and polished brass screen that separates the space from the stairway and lends visual interest.

Interior Design

The new building, which recently received a prestigious Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects, New York State, will replace the Marc Jacobs Collection store designed by Stephan Jaklitsch Architects in 2002. The building will complement the nearby Marc by Marc Jacobs Harajuku store (completed in 2007), as well as several Marc Jacobs accessories stores throughout the city.

About Stephan Jaklitsch Architects PC

Founded in 1998, Stephan Jaklitsch Architects is a twelve-person studio based in New York with an outpost in Tokyo. Since its inception, the firm has won numerous awards, been exhibited widely, and been featured in publications throughout the world. In 2009, ORO Editions published a new monograph on the studio’s work: Habits, Patterns, Algorithms, featuring twenty-two selected projects from over a ten year period. Through his work, Jaklitsch seeks to explore the poetry of architecture – using the manipulation of space and light to create rigorously detailed spaces that convey a sense of meaning and purpose to their respective contexts.

MARC JACOBS TOKYO FLAGSHIP BUILDING

MARC JACOBS Aoyama Store

Stairs View

Interior Design

Interior Design

Interior View

Basement Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

Tall Panel Pattern

Store Front Detail

Short Panel Pattern

Section Looking East

Section At Stair

Second Floor Plan

Panel Types

Panel Layout

Tags: Aoyama shopping district, Japan

Category: Commercial Building

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