Omotesando Fashion Museum Competition

Lightwave

Our entry for a fashion museum in Omotesando, Tokyo was part of an international architectural ideas competition initiated by Arquitectum in 2010.

The brief called for a one hundred-metre-high tower on a four hundred square metre corner site in central Tokyo. The building was required to be a landmark in the cityscape but also to engage the public space at street level. Daylighting was mandatory for the exhibition spaces and public circulation vertically through the fourteen levels presented a significant challenge to accessibility.

Our response was to capture the dynamism of fashion with a kinetic structure: a hoop dress of concrete floor plates draped in sheer layers of glass and steel mesh. The design provides a display for the city and of the city, an egalitarian gesture to users and observers.

The three storey entrance hall is a graceful and dramatic presence at street level with the building’s skin descending to gently cloak the foothpath.