Shopping centre Gyre
Recent developments in the Omotesando district of Tokyo incorporate the spectacular design of new box-shaped buildings, each with a magnificent façade and a modest interior. Most of the buildings are flagship stores for major fashion brands. They seem to concentrate on the quality of their skins and façades, and display themselves as giant advertisements. They are the architectural equivalent of supermodels. But like supermodels, their beauty can be intimidating. Can a new building compete and make a statement? Can a new building strive to be more than merely decorative?
Vertical Street Why not pick up the thread of earlier developments that began in 1985 with the Spiral Building by Maki and continued in 2001 with the YM Square building in Harajuku? These designs focused on the vertical movement of visitors, and are more public and less exclusive than fashionable ‘name-brand’ buildings. However, the special qualities of these buildings are not directly visible from the street and they lack the iconic exterior qualities of the more recent Omotesando stores. Is it possible to combine internal openness with an iconic exterior and get the best of both typologies?
The programme points to a building that can serve one or several users/companies. It must therefore communicate on two scale levels: the level of the building as a whole and the level of the individual shops inside the building.
Central Core The space is programmed for seven floors, each floor area is 60 per cent of the total plot. By gradually twisting these floors around a central core, a series of terraces emerge, connected by stairs and elevators that are positioned outside the volumes. They create an identical pair of vertically-stepped, terraced streets, one on each side of the core. One travels up from Omotesando Street, the other down to Cat Street. These two public routes are connected via the shops at every level throughout the block.
The exterior of the building produces a highly iconic and sculptural form; a building that attracts and invites people, not only to the street level, but also to companies and destinations at higher levels.
Structure The building contains a central core for transport. A larger, structural core, where all floors overlap, have floor-to-ceiling, truss-like beams which are cantilevered to support the connecting floors. Floors are spanned between the trusses, resulting in flexible spaces.
Expression As the silhouette of the building is already unique, the façade can stay relatively modest, allowing the occupants of the spaces to express themselves. A series of shop window-sized openings appear at each level. They serve as doors, windows or shop windows/signs. The closed façade, the ceilings and the terraces are made of blue polyurethane-treated concrete. The terraces contain seating elements and small trees.
Post Scriptum The strong commercial constraints of the site ultimately led to the repositioning of the escalators within a central core. The stairs were kept outside and continue to tell the story of the ‘Swirl’.
