Uniqlo Megastore / Curiosity
Curiosity has completed the design of the Uniqlo Megastore that has opened near Shinjuku station in Tokyo. The new design is strongly influenced by the Tokyo urban landscape and the large entrance, marked with three display towers, recreates a mini-Shinjuku city. As the lighting floor wraps the towers in a glow of light that illuminates the surrounding streets, the shop becomes an active element of the street: attractive, reliable, and secure. The new Uniqlo Megastore adds a civic dimension to its commercial purpose.
Geometric Façade
The façade is composed of two surfaces with geometrical lit lines. The lines make the materiality of the facade and architecture disappear so that only the Uniqlo logos remain in the complex maze of neon and information of the virtual city that Tokyo becomes at night.
Borderless Entrance
The layout and angulations of the towers blur the boundaries between the street and the retail space, creating a unique environment in a busy street of Shinjuku.
Reflection of Reflection Entrance
The city seems to have become human scale as you move freely around the three towers. The vertical displays of the entrance are reflected on the mirrored wall creating an amazing gallery of displays, a maze of reflections of reflections, the tower seeming to be inserted within the interior of the shop.
Non Existance Interior
The challenge of the interior is for it not to ‘exist’. Only the clothes should be visible. Display furniture is not only reduced to the minimum but also ‘designed’ to be non-existent with materials selected for their immateriality. A lighting ceiling, displays and counters work together to remove the shadows creating an abstract retail environment where products and customers seem to float in a white glow.
Photographs: Nacasa & Partners Inc.
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- floor plan
Stunning exterior perspective shot. More interesting than the extremely sterile interior.
that is all.
Is there an 80′s revival movement of architecture that is going to start that I am unaware about? Please…no. I was just starting to be happy that all the 80′s fashion was dying down finally. :)
I think a civic dimension is essential . The street is the place which is filled with activity,but the dimension is ignored usually.We should pay attention to it.
Brilliant. Absolute brilliant.
I think this space has a good commercial quality. Excellent photography. The building was photographed only at night with all lights around it turned off (or photoshoped off). There are no daylight photos, why?
and he said… “Let there be light”
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2009/nb20090425a4a.jpg
Seemingly bringing the the “non existent white” from the inside, out. Masterpiece if I may say so myself…
- more daylight photos to come after the break…
more daylight, and some more night shots…
http://blog.gaijinpot.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/uniqlo-240×180.jpg
http://www.japantoday.com/images/size/655x/2009/04/uniqlo1.jpg
http://media.photobucket.com/image/Uniqlo%20Shinjuku/discogroover1/japan/Shinjuku/DSC_1935.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drry/3469874903/
this last link to flickr has a few photos in the set, enjoy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/semisara/3469249471/in/photostream/
I love the entrance sequence…choreographing people to flow around the product displays as you enter the shop…great retail design. Even Bo Diddy likes it so it must be good!!!!
@ Lucas Gray
I think you meant to say Bo Lucky??? Yeah… you must have confused the Bo’s. This Bo is not the negative critique master.
The facade is Tron-esque.
Love it!
At first the entrance seemed wrong, the vertical displays like a subliminal wall against entry. Then the scale kicked in.
That the major display walls reinforce the exterior grid is a nice touch (intended or not).
@Bo Diddy: I think Lucas Gray meant Bo Diddy. Perhaps he thinks you’re the real Diddy…
On-topic: I like every aspect of this shop. Can’t describe my enthusiasm for it.
Helpful information. Fortunate me I discovered your site by chance, and I am surprised why this accident didn’t took place in advance! I bookmarked it.
1:39 AM Jun 2nd
Uniqlo Megastore / Curiosity | ArchDaily – http://shar.es/HXya
3:56 PM Jun 2nd
New Tron-esque uniqlo in Tokyo http://bit.ly/mvv9N
6:55 PM Jun 2nd
gotta go back to tokyo to see this! http://bit.ly/mvv9N
8:15 PM Jun 2nd
Uncle Toby’s oats for breakfast isn’t so bad after all, especially sprinkled with chocolate cereals. http://tinyurl.com/kqpycx
8:16 PM Jun 2nd
whoopsie that should have been the link to the new UNIQLO store in Shinjuku http://tinyurl.com/kqpycx
8:20 PM Jun 3rd
Woulda loved to have seen this Uniqlo store near Shinjuku… http://bit.ly/SqOFI Uniqlo does cool interiors, liked UT Harajuku
12:07 AM Jun 10th
Uniqlo Megastore / Curiosity – http://shar.es/f2Pw
1:58 PM Nov 8th
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