The connections between fashion and architecture have been widely explored in this blog with multiple posts on architectural approaches, buildings compared to garments, collaborations between architects and designers and courses, workshop and lectures tackling themes that relate in some ways to these two disciplines (to find these posts please use the Lijit Search Widjet at the end of this article).
Some posts also looked at the connections between architects and retail spaces, from Prada’s collaborations with Rem Koolhaas to the projects by architectural firm Piuarch that explore the possibilities of creating retail spaces inspired by the “glocal” principle and alternative solutions to the “Dubai effect”, that is contemporary projects referred to or integrated in specific contexts.
In March the Paris-based F(AA)shion workshop also investigated the issue of innovative retail spaces through lectures in which students where asked to think about offering customers hospitable gallery-like spaces that went from multimodal to mobile pop-up stores.
The fashion and architecture connection will strengthen in the next few months also thanks to specific projects tackling this connection (and to other projects that will consist in hundreds of high-profile bloggers and assorted fashion brands with no real interest in architecture jumping on the bandwagon just for the sake of it…).
Amongst the latest projects looking at the architecture and fashion connection there is a competition launched by New York-based non-profit arts and culture organization BOFFO in collaboration with architect Spilios Giannakopoulos.
Entitled "Building Fashion" the competition – launched in partnership with Architizer – is actually in its second year.
The concept behind the competition is very simple: architects and architectural firms are asked to send projects for retail installations dedicated to five different fashion houses and brands, including Mugler, American jewellery designer Irene Neuwirth, menswear designer Patrik Ervell, lingerie brand The Lake & Stars and womenswear design duo Ohne Titel.
The jury includes BOFFO, Architizer and industry leaders including DS&R’s Charles Renfro, Architectonic’s Winka Dubbledam, High Line Co-Founder Robert Hammond and other industry professionals. Winning architects will be warded $20,000 that will go towards the installation.
Projects will be showcased in New York at the new BOFFO location, 57 Walker Street.
Every two weeks starting from September 2011 the retail spaces will change, showcasing a different project.
This is not the first time BOFFO launches such an event: last year the non-profit organisation teamed with Giannakopoulos working on the first "Building Fashion" competition that included a series of six installations – among them also retail spaces by Snarkitecture for Richard Chai and by Leong + Leong for Siki Im – located on the site of Neil M. Denari Architects’ HL23 in the Chelsea Arts District.
The call to this second competition (deadline: 4th July) is accompanied by different videos with designers explaining their vision and in some cases also talking about the connections between their collections and architecture.
Some videos are perfectly spot on: Ohne Titel's Alexa Adams and Flora Gill talk for example about their architectural materials and volumes or graphic silhouettes and shapes; Patrik Ervell mentions the construction behind his designs and the sets for his catwalk shows while The Lake & Stars hint at the importance of understanding who is their customer to create a coherent retail environment.
These issues are rather interesting as they allow architects to have a clearer vision of what the designers involved are looking for, as opposed to the video with Mugler's Creative Director Nicola Formichetti, essentially an individualist rant about himself and Lady Gaga presenting an ambitiously confusing idea for a retail space-cum-installation (complete of Japanese girl used as a cool prop…) that is everything and nothing at the same time and that may spell as total bankruptcy if it were taken a step further by a company really investing in it.
I'm curious to see which architects and architectural firms will take part in the competition and the final results.
In the meantime, if you’re interested in the "Building Fashion" theme and you’re a student, you can start enrolling in the next Paris-based workshop by the Architectural Association School of Architecture.
Incidentally also entitled "Building Fashion" it will look at issues such as technology and couture, experimental prototyping and, last but not least, developing cutting edge creations through a technique I mentioned in a previous post, stereoscopic 3-D technology. Guess you have no excuses this year not to delve further into the relation between fashion and architecture.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
It was a beneficial workout for me to go through your webpage. It definitely stretches the limits with the mind when you go through very good info and make an effort to interpret it properly.
Posted by: Shop Fitting Queensland | September 21, 2011 at 05:24 AM
You raise a lot of questions in my head; you wrote an excellent post, but this post is also mind provoking, and I will have to think about it a bit more; I will return soon.
Posted by: barcelona apartment | October 18, 2011 at 11:38 AM