Hundred Meters of FashionIdea

The tissue of the plot has been treated as an
elastic fabric, which can be stretched, pulled upwards and twisted so as to
form the desired shape, based on the
design-programme analysis.

Programme-spatial and
architectural concept of the museum

A function of a museum is
commonly associated with buildings with a wide, horizontal programme-spatial
layout. They tend to be objects which are exposition ’packagings’, places of an
individual contemplation, but also areas for meetings, drawing society into their
world.

How to create on a small plot, in densely
urbanised city tissue, a space that would be drawing people into its interior?
How to create a public space being a forum for
meetings?

What are the vertical connections
in a layered system of horizontal levels?

Due to the small dimensions of
the parcel being located in the intensely urbanised city tissue of Tokyo, the
wide programme of the fasion museum has been set up vertically on 22 levels (19
of which above the ground level). The result is a functional ‘pile’ of layers –
‘programme squares’.

In order to create an urban
emptiness, out of which a public space can be created that will draw into the
building interior, the entry level ‘programme square’ has been moved to the lower
ground floor and has been connected with the city via a wide ramp. The ramp
flows into the lower level, forming an entry level hall, of the shape and
colour of a solidified flow of magma. The following functions have been located
there: reception, souvenir shop and seating places. The form of the underground
relates to the holy mountain – Mount Fuji; the bottom part is a metaphor of
magma, whereas the conical upper structure – snow covered summits.

On the ground level, a yard has
been organised on slopes created of plains, which like elastis fabric are
stretched out of the plot corners. They connect further down the ground and
twist, leading upwards to the corners of the raised storeys.

The surface of the yard canopy
has been shaped by the wrapped up fabric enabling screening of pictures and
multimedia presentations.

The pile of ‘programme squares’,
raised above the city level, has been processed further, preliminarily moving
them around clockwise within the borders of the plot. Each of the ‘pile’ levels
have been allocated certain functions, in order of the assumed and transformed
functional programme and of a diagram of mutual spatial and logical relations.

A further step of hybridisation
of a base model is diversification of the level hights – changing the space form of given interiors, creating a
preliminary layout of the desired emptiness-mass balance. The resulting level
layout has been connected via a vertical construction, the communication and
technical infrastructure core. Vertical partitions – the external walls consist
of functional elements, generated by the earlier assumed set of the ‘programme
squares’.

The cubature created in this way
is a pile of simple, basic geometric shapes – boxes piled up one on another
according to the assumed order of the plan of the building and their mutual
shift. The pile of shifted boxes is a partitionned 100-metre tower. Dividing
the space helps reduce the volume of the building mass optically and helps relate
the horizontal directions to the height of the sourrouding buildings. The pile
of boxes has been cut through by horizontal straigt lines thus creating stripes
of glazing wrapping around the building and providing a 360 degrees view.

The biggest part of the museum –
the permanent display, devoted to given historical periods, has been shifted so
that the first stage of the visit – the gallery dedicated to the oldest period
covered by the programme (the 20’s) has been located on the top of the pile.
Lower down, the further levels have been dedicated to the subsequent periods
according to the time continuum.
The aim of this was to separate the oldest period from the contemporary city
and to enforce the historic sightseeing route by going lower down. In the
subsequent layers of the gallery holes have been cut through and stairs have
been fitted in accordance with the assumed visitor route, ie from the top to
the bottom clockwise. This ensures a fluent transition between the periods of
fashion history. Going further down we go through the history, coming closer to
the contemporary period as well as to the the contemporary tissue of the city.Parking and deliveries have been organised on level –3, accessible via a
lift located in the west part of the plot. The upper part of the shaft has been
covered with an elliptic capsule finished up with a high class artificial
grass. Aside from the transporting function, the lift also constitues an
abstract sculpture enriching the yard.

Skin

The whole structure of the
building, from the entry yard to the top of the tower has been wound with a
homogenic lether relating to the basic fabric of every fashion designer and
constituting the base of every collection, ie textile fabric and its material –
thread, fibres. Fibers of the fashion museum are lead in two rows – one layer
of fiber winds around the building clockwise, the other one anti-closkwise thus
resulting in a kind of a plaiting. The plaiting is then modified adjusting the
meshes and its density to factors such as lighting conditions, view openings
and overall composition. Fibres of the fabric winding around the museum cross
at different angles, creating either a dense net or wide meshes locally, providing
a full opening of the building.