La Maison Unique
Longchamp Store by Heatherwick Studio
Iliana Mitova BA(Hons) Interior Design & Technology
Contents
Introduction Site context & orientation Building area - ‘FAR’ Spatial ordering and hierarchy Circulation Public, Private, Service and Served spaces Structure & Construction Building services Materials Environmental strategy Light Bibliography
3 4 5 7 11 12 13 15 17 19 20 21
Introduction
This precedent study investigates the Longchamp Store building in Soho, New York. The project was designed by the Heatherwick Studio for the French luxury leather goods brand Longchamp. The building was transformed by the designers with the brief to “draw” the customers to the second floor, where is the main retail space. Three major interventions where done with the idea of an exciting shopper’s journey. A skylight was cut into the ceiling with natural light reaching the ground floor area. The accent of the building is the ribbon like stair “flowing” like a piece of cloth from the skylight to the entrance of the shop, inviting the customers to go upstairs to shop. And a third floor was added with a rooftop garden and office space.
Site context & Orientation Surrounded by high-rise buildings.The structure is one of a few low kevel buildings in the area. Surrounded by 5-6 storey buildings, the Longshamp store building is one of the few low-rise buildings in the area.
132 Spring Street, SoHo, Lower Manhattan, New York, USA
The store according to other high end brands in the area.
Ground floor area - 139.35 sq.m Main Retail Space(First Floor) - 418.06 sq.m Showroom plus a rooftop garden - 157.93 sq.m Total area of the store - 715.34 sq.m FAR (of the building)= 1.711 (715.34 / 418.06)
Spatial ordering and Hierarchy
Spatial ordering and Hierarchy Movement and occupation of spaces
Shoppers Journey
How do you make customers overcome their interia and walk up flights of stairs? Tomas Heatherwick, Making, 2012
Spatial Ordering & Hierarchy
Handbags Luggage Leather goods Toilet
Storage
Circulation
Elevator Primary Circulation Secondary Circulation
Private / Public
Public Space Employee Space/Private
Structure
The industrial building from 1936 has sheer open plan with high ceilings and unique structural details. It had been given a new brick façade in the 1980s. Added a third floor garden terrace and offices. The shop spreads on three floors. The main retail space is on the second floor. Its only connection to the street is trough a tiny space on the Ground floor and it’s shop window is shared with a chocolate shop next door.
Structure
The stair was built off site, cut into transportable sections, then welded together with complete joint penetration welds on site. Section sizes where based on trucking dimensions.
“The structural component of the stairs doesn’t have any support underneath it or above it. The geometry is what holds the whole thing up.”
Building services Water
Clean Water Dirty Water
Building services Airconditioning
Third floor air vents Second floor air vents First floor air vents
Materiality
Materiality
The landscape stair weights 60 tonnes, made of 279.4 mm wide and 25.4 mm thick steel plate, with strips of leather-brown coloured rubber set into its surfaces.
Environmental Strategy
Use of the natural daylight for lighitingup the structure
Light Natural light comes from the top of the building and lights up the whole stair.
“The first part of the concept was to draw people in using daylight, by cutting a hole down through the entire building. The second intervention in the building was the creation of ribbon like structure connecting the three floors. Flowing like a piece of cloth forming stepable surfaces which bring the customers from the ground floor up to the main retail space� (Heatherwick, Thomas, Making, 20012, Thames&Hudson)
Atrium rises 18.3 meters to a sloped skylight (Heatherwick, Thomas, Making, 20012, Thames&Hudson)
Light Track-mounted spotlights - Emphasising installations to attract attention
Ambient lights are used for the general lighting of the space
Light
Bibliography
Heatherwick, Thomas; Making, Thames and Hudson, 2012 Ching, Francis; Space, Form and Order; van Nostrand Reinhold 1979 http//longchampnyc.wordpress.com/ Stairway to heaven - www.designindaba.com/news/stairway-heaven.pdf La Maison Unique - http://retailform.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/hello-world Longchamp Boutique by Heatherwick Studio - www.architectural-review.com/home/innovators/2006 Longchamp Stair Optimization and Vibration Study, STRUCTURE Magazine, February 2009 Stairs At The Longchamp Store