Jun Aoki & Associates

LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji

LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER

LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji 

Jun Aoki & Associates

ARCHITECT IN CHARGE
Jun Aoki & Associates

CLIENT
Louis Vuitton Japan Kk

DESIGN TEAM
Jun Aoki & Associates, Peter Marino Architect, H&a, A.n.d, Louis Vuitton Japan Malletier

CONTRACTORS
Asahi Building-wall Company Limited, J.front Design And Construction Company Limited, Sogo Design Co.ltd

YEAR
2019

LOCATION
Osaka, Japan

CATEGORY
Retail

LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER

Text description provided by architect.

Osaka is known as City of Water where interwinding rivers and canals flow into. Taking advantage of such geographical characteristics.

LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER

Trade between Edo throve by running Higaki Kaisen, the merchant vessels that shipped numerous goods to the capital during the Edo period.

Underlined with its history and its attitude in favor of straightforwardness, referencing sails as an obvious design metaphor becomes appropriate.

LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER

“Stay,” the structure that supports the glasses, is intended to be see-through from outside. Display of the stay is a new design approach with Louis Vuitton, whose previous exterior designs had been focusing on generating visual happenstance without exposing structural supports.

Façades of the building are entirely covered by ten sails. The sails’ 3D airfoil shapes are composed of the 2D curved glass panels, aiming for manufacturing and cost efficiency.

LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER

This execution may seem unlikely, but brings more coherence between exterior and interior, under a same design theme of a sailing ship and by genuinely following it.

Each glass panel is double-glazed with two high transparency glasses, one of which facing outside is applied with ceramic frit to create a white cloth pattern on the surface, and to avoid appearing green, the color those glasses originally have.

LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER


LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Courtesy of LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER


LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Elevations
LOUIS VUITTON Maison Osaka Midosuji
Site plan

Jun Aoki & Associates
F +81 3 54683821
Jun Aoki & Associates
Mak Flat 2F, 6-11-8, Minami Aoyama, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 107-0062, Japan