With its organic curves rendered in metal, Elsa Peretti’s Bone Cuff for Tiffany & Co. is one of the brand’s most iconic pieces – and now it has an architectural interpretation in MVRDV‘s Tiffany flagship on the Taikoo-Li Sanlitun commercial strip of Beijing. The Dutch firm (working with local studio At Zero Limited) took Peretti’s fluid bracelet as the inspiration for the elegantly curved vertical glass fins that rise up 20 metres to wrap the four-storey, 1000-square-metre building in a luminous veil.
Seen from afar, the fins form a gently undulating facade that also suggests the flowy garment that might be worn with such a statement-making piece of jewellery.
But they are just as interesting up close. Made of recycled glass, they have a distinct texture that makes them as worthy of caressing as a precious necklace. Solid yet translucent, they allow natural light to penetrate deep into the store’s showrooms while filtering out glare.
Come nightfall, their seafoam tone pulsates in Tiffany’s trademark blue hue, thanks to light modules built into the custom-made brackets that connect the fins to the structure. And just as the fins are made of recycled material, the entire facade is demountable so that its components can take on a second life elsewhere.
This is the fifth in a series of scintillating facades that MVRDV has created for Tiffany & Co. In Shanghai, it went with that most classic of luxury motifs: 6,988 handcrafted glass “diamonds” drape the exterior; MVRDV also brought that level of bling to the company’s Stuttgart showroom. And in both Singapore’s Changhi Airport and in the brand’s flagship in Cancún, Mexico, another precious substance – coral – was reinterpreted as an architectural pattern. And these are just for Tiffany & Co.: MVRDV has also made memorable facades for Chanel and Bulgari that reinterpret the brand ethos while showcasing material invention.
As different as their inspirations and effects might be, these projects have in common both their amplification of the luxury retail experience, and their ambition to make that luxury a part of the sidewalk dance that can be enjoyed by everyone. Even for those of us merely passing by, the facades of MVRDV are like gifts – eye candy, to be sure, but also inspiring nods to the transformative and adaptable nature of our urban fabric.
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