Excerpt: Marcomonde Shibuya, designed by UUfie, represents the first permanent retail space for the Japanese fashion brand, Marcomonde. The apparel line is a fusion of culture and fashion. The space—composed of stairs, millwork, and floor—has been conceived as a free-standing, abstract, geometric sculpture. The overall design gives the appearance of a staircase, but this is an illusion, as the staircase leads nowhere. In relationship to the main building, the store creates an intriguing physical disorientation by suggesting a stairway leading to a secret place.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] “Marcomonde Shibuya” represents the first, permanent retail space for the Japanese fashion brand, Marcomonde. It’s located in front of the escalator landing on the fourth floor of the eleven-story Shibuya PARCO department store in the high-trend fashion district of Tokyo, Japan. The Marcomonde brand focuses on socks and footwear that encompasses the colours and patterns that decorate the streets around the world. The apparel line is a fusion of culture and fashion. The new store’s primary focus is to represent the brand’s identity in just under 20 square meters. The space—composed of stairs, millwork, and floor—has been conceived as a free-standing, abstract, geometric sculpture.
The overall design gives the appearance of a staircase, but this is an illusion, as the staircase leads nowhere. Like animated objects, the footwear and other apparel are casually displayed along the staircase. Clothing items are hung on simple industrial piping, continuing the design’s playful surrealism. The stair surfaces, walls, floors and panels have been uniformly finished with durable, epoxy-resin mortar with grey undertones that showcase the colour, pattern, and detail of the products. The shelves are made of stainless-steel pipe and high-translucency clear glass that complement the building’s existing infrastructure. Although the assembled space has the appearance of a solid block, it’s in fact a shell allowing hidden functional chambers for storage, a change room, and a desk.
The design of the Marcomonde Shibuya store combines the physical familiarity of a staircase with a clever showcasing of the brand’s collection of socks and footwear. In relationship to the main building, the store creates an intriguing physical disorientation by suggesting a stairway leading to a secret place.