Herzog & De Meuron: Prada Aoyama Tokyo

In the Aoyama district of Tokyo, a mixed-use neighborhood of low-rise buildings where not a square meter of land has been left unoccupied, the Swiss architecture team of Herzog & de Meuron has built a new store for Prada.

In this chunky, silvery book, they meticulously illustrate the creative process that led to the realization of “a house and a plaza,” a tall and narrow kaleidoscope-like structure that houses a two-story retail space and multiple levels of offices, backed by an outdoor space for the public--a rarity in crowded Tokyo. The finished structure, encased in a visually porous shell or skin, is as decorative as it is architectural--or as architectural as it is decorative--and is both metaphorically and literally linked to its surrounding environment, and to the idea of the garment. Here is the story of a theoretically and structurally complex building told lovingly and simply by its architects, through words, models, sketches, photographs and architectural renderings.