Peter Marino channels happiness for renovation of Louis Vuitton retailer in west London
Peter Marino has used paintings by Tracy Emin and the Campana Brothers to animate the inside of Louis Vuitton’s New Bond Avenue retailer, which has reopened after greater than a yr of renovation works.
Louis Vuitton dominates a corner-block of New Bond Avenue, a parade of luxurious boutiques in west London’s prosperous Mayfair neighbourhood.
Over the course of 14 months, American architect Peter Marino has overhauled the style label’s retailer to function vivid fixtures and furnishings that evoke “happiness with no feeling of intimidation”.
“I’ve labored with Louis Vuitton since 1994, and we’ve moved away from all of the brown wooden we used in the beginning,” mentioned Marino.
“There was an actual evolution in the direction of one thing lighter, clearer and dare I say, happier.”
The inside of the shop is now composed of a number of expansive, double-height rooms that are every clad in sand-coloured stone tiles.
Every one has been dressed with a collection of artworks, an try by Marino to convey the theatrics of the shop’s window shows inside.
“Volumetrically, we needed to increase the prevailing area. We discovered that individuals react to spectacular volumes by desirous to spend prolonged durations of time in these areas,” defined Marino.
“[The volumes] are so huge that they actually enable for each the artwork and the style designer to be revered inside the identical area.”
One wall on the bottom flooring – which is basically devoted to womenswear – includes a portray by American artist Sarah Crowner, which is roofed in interlocking blue, orange and fuschia shapes.
It lies adjoining to a heart-shaped neon sculpture by Tracey Emin, which is inscribed with the phrases “love is what you need”.
Perforated, cocoon-like pods designed by the Campana brothers descend from the ceiling.
Glass-topped tables that show smaller equipment like purses perch upon vermilion-red, lemon-yellow and checkerboard-pattern rugs. Patterned silk scarves are hung towards gridded brass frames.
A double-helix set of stairs crafted from oak wooden connects clients to 2 of the shop’s 4 flooring.
A totem pole by Matt Gagnon Studio that is composed of illuminated disks extends up via a central void, whereas a cartoonish orange spiral sculpture by New York-based artist Josh Sperling has been mounted on the stairwell wall.
“[The staircase] occurs to be a kind of ‘completely satisfied accidents’ of destiny. I nonetheless draw by hand, I had the tracing paper and bear in mind it shifting, which left me with two stairs,” Marino added.
The steps can be utilized to succeed in the basement, the place a print from German photographer Andreas Gurksy is displayed, or take clients as much as the primary flooring the place one in every of James Turrell’s Tall Glass items has been inset right into a wall.
The LED-powered panels have been programmed by the American artist to subtly change hue over time.
At this stage a secondary stairwell – which Scottish artist Jim Lambie has nearly fully lined in multi-coloured strips of tape – leads as much as the second flooring. It accommodates three personal-shopping suites.
A purple-hued starburst construction has lastly been made to increase out over a part of the shop’s entrance facade, which is dotted with the flowers and LV letters that make up the model’s signature emblem.
Peter Marino is usually the architect of selection for luxurious manufacturers seeking to create hanging retail area. Again in 2016 he designed a New York flagship retailer for Swiss watchmakers Hublot, which is externally clad in black aluminium fins and LED strip lights.
4 years in the past, Marino additionally labored with Christian de Portzamparc to create a Dior boutique in Seoul. It includes a gently undulating facade that is meant to imitate the fluid motion of clothes created within the vogue label’s atelier.
Pictures is by Stephane Muratet.