∂ 2014 ¥ 5
Documentation
569
Site plan scale 1:2000 3 4 5
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Layout plan scale 1:500 1 Cast iron facade 2 Curiosity shop 3 Men’s collection 4 Fitting room 5 Bridge to neighbouring building 6 Women’s collection 7 Office lobby 8 Window display (neighbouring building)
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Horizontal section Cast iron facade scale 1:50
With the facade design for the Paul Smith Store on Albemarle Street in London, 6a Architects has set up a relationship between the fabric used in the designer’s offbeat items of clothing and London’s industrial past. The cast iron skin harks back to the eighteenth century, the period in which the building was erected; at that time the material led to new branches of industry in Great Britain and, in the form of bridges, lanterns and balcony grilles, it has remained ubiquitous on the streets until the present day. The raised pattern of circles on the facade, which overlap and thereby yield a complex structure, are evidence of a playful engagement with the ornamentation of the era and brings to mind in its modern interpretation the fine fabrics upon which the British designer’s renown is based. On closer inspection the attentive flâneur will recognize Smith’s “signature” immortalised in cast iron: sketches of a cat, bird and shoe are hidden unobtrusively in the thicket of lines. Semi-circular glass vitrines serve as display windows and provide partial glimpses into the showroom of the extension to the shop. The architects found inspiration in the curves of the historic storefronts located in the vicinity. The glass was bent to shape, with minimal margin for error, in Spain and transported to England, where it was glued to the stainless-steel profiles before being mounted on the galvanised steel construction. The cast iron panels were developed using a combination of modern and traditional manufacturing methods: the geometry came about with the assistance of a computer program, and the polyurethane moulds were produced on a CNC mill, while the ductile cast iron received its final form – with raised pattern and integrated hooks – through the use of the conventional (CNC-mill produced) sand moulds. Then the panels were given time to oxidise before a tannin-based rust converter was employed to stop the process and give the cast iron its dark tone.The change in material from cast iron panel to oiled oak escape door – whose surface is an inverted play on the bas relief of the cast iron panels – is barely perceptible.