INNER SKIN, OUTER FLESH
Type: International competition for a fashion musem towerSize: 4.000m²
Location: Tokyo, JP
Team: Ahmed Belkhodja, Alexandre Carpentier
Date: March 2010
Award: 4th place - honorable mention
To take a strong place in the middle of Tokyo and Omotesando’s dynamic world of fashion related buildings, we propose a tower of no clear facade nor form. Its structural flesh is a mesh which defines its presence, an elegant simplicity towards the city and a spectacular visual experience for the nearby pedestrians. This mesh hides, reveals, and supports the contents of the museum in a single gesture. The needed spaces grow inside of it in complete freedom. This allows to have very diverse exposition rooms, from the most intimate to the most transparent, and a continuity in the museum experi- ence showcasing a whole century of fashion history in one route.
The volume of the runway dominates Omotesando street while becoming a landmark for it. Its only opening is through its glass catwalk platform, thus giving to the public space a mysterious peek at the heart of fashion. The traditional matter/void relationship cannot fully describe the project. Speaking about different natures of void would perhaps be more accurate. The only real physical borders are the surfaces of the rooms, their glass thermal envelope, the tower’s inner skin.
Published:
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Links:
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