Our concept for the Neil Barrett flagship store in Tokyo echoes the brand’s minimalism and use of fixed points, folds, pleats and cut outs. Rather than defining the store in terms of rooms, we created a circular passage through which customers can move and experience the space in many different ways.
Furniture placed at key points creates transitions from narrow enclosure to open space, and in two formal elements, architecture becomes sculpture to form both shelving displays and seating.
The store also explores the interplay between male and female. Furniture on the ground floor takes a strong, dynamic, masculine form; on the first floor lines and contours are more fluid, creating a playful contrast to the space below. Male/female characteristics are also expressed in other ways – by setting furniture finished in white Corian against raw faced concrete or black glossy floors.
Our designs were shaped using 3D computer generation models, for manufacture by thermoforming sheet Corian – a process which guaranteed absolute precision in the translation of idea to object.
