Roppongi Louis Vuitton’s Flagship Tokyo store is located in the center of Roppongi Hills, the largest urban development in Japan. The facade of the shop is the scenic backdrop of a large square called Events Plaza.
Studio Aurelio Clementi: Aurelio Clementi, Director. Irene Antolini, Cettina Schepis, Design team.
Aoki and Associates: Jun Aoki Director, Ryuji Nakamura, Project Manager, Noriko Nagayama, Design Team. Louis Vuitton Architecture Dept.: Eric Carslon, Director, Marie Eve Bidard, Laetitia Perrin, Design Team.
Associate Architect: Higo and Associates: Isao Higo, Director, Mie Myamoto, Tsunetaka Ueda, Design Team. Lighting engineering/Lighting: George Sexton Associates: Washington USA
Lighting Fabrication: Yamagiwa Inc: Tokyo Japan.
Graphics/Graphic Design: FLAME: Tokyo
Jukebox/MP3 Programming Jukebox
Programming: NTT DoCoMO: Tokyo Japan Fiber Optic Floor/Fiber Optics Floor
Floor projections/Floor Imagin Design: Sun Design, Hiro Konoe.
Speaking Pictures: Jerome Olivier Tokyo Japan
Fabrics/Fabric Design: Nuno, Tokyo Japan
Construction Company/General Contractor: Shimizu Corp.
Interior Designer/Interior Contractor: Takashimaya Space create.
Photos Copyrights: Ano Daici, Tokyo. Jimmy Cohrssen, Paris
The construction of the facade is inspired by the idea of a “mirage”, where colors and lights mix in a vibrant composition that changes depending on the viewer’s point of view.
30,000 glass tubes of 10cm in diameter between two glass panels and suspended between two mirrored metal panels, compose the images of the symbols of the LV house in an almost infinite way.
Inside, a double-height space, central nave, gallery or internal square, is completely covered by a hanging mesh, made of steel circles 10cm in diameter, which interlocked together make up the Vuitton symbols. This space is completely free of furniture to accommodate future changes, exhibitions or events.
The floor in this area, and also on the risers of the central staircase, de-materialises by becoming video: the limestone floor is micro-perforated to contain the heads of thousands of optical fibers which transmit video images. When the video is turned off, the floor returns to being completely normal like any stone floor.
The other internal sales spaces are separated only by the light filter of the steel mesh suspended from the ceiling; here too, the creation of medium-scale furniture for product display is avoided.
The containers and shelves are extrusions from the walls and floors, unified by the treatment of the surfaces with materials used in the Vuitton tradition, but re-interpreted in a modern key.
For the first time, the interiors of a Vuitton store are detached from the design concept applied up to now throughout the world and are perfectly integrated with the site’s philosophy.
Along the back walls, the focal point of the whole space, are the Bag Bars, where customers sit on stools to examine the choice of products arranged as if they were bottles on the counters of a bar. The back wall of the Bar is made up of flexible extrusions that can enter or exit according to the display requirement.
The jewelery area is inspired by a bank vault, entirely covered in small steel drawers, but also in steel circles and brown leather inserts. Upstairs two “Lounges” allow comfortable seats during the purchase (a method loved in Japan) in an intimate and comfortable environment.
