288 Prada Improbable Classics, Temporary Store

Project: 2006
Realization: 2006
Temporary Store: 12 June–19 June 2006

Our work with Prada and for Prada over the past few years has had both useless and fruitful consequences: build and unbuilt projects, factories, exhibition spaces, materials, furniture, bars, restaurants and shops. All of these projects were ultimately about the city of today. About understanding how cities work. About how much everything changes. They are tests. How do we move about in cities? Where do we go? Why do we in fact move about it all? How and when does movement take place? Today we no longer think the thoughts we thought yesterday. But that doesn’t make them wrong. They have simply changed. For example, addressing how a shop should function or even what a shop actually is. Or the ideal location for a shop.

The ideal location has shifted. In a city that suddenly swells for a few days in summer as if it were the only city in the world, it can be anywhere. At this particular moment, every location in this city is an interesting location – for a shop for instance. But the shop itself also looks different in this location: the lighting is different. The display is different. Much more compact, many more items. Like a discount market, some things in boxes, others on tables. With goods created especially for this location. And with less architecture. Almost no architecture at all.

Team

Partners: Jacques Herzog; Pierre de Meuron; Stefan Marbach
Project Team: Wolfgang Hardt (Associate, Project Architect); Catherine Preiswerk (Project Architect); Bernhard König; Sara Secci

Facts

Client: Prada
Building Data: Gross floor area (GFA): 2'152 sqft, 200 sqm
Links: www.prada.com

Bibliography

“Building Review. Herzog & de Meuron.” Vol. No. 340, Beijing, Art and Design Publishing House, 03.2007. pp. 8-140.

Herzog & de Meuron: “Herzog & de Meuron. Prada Improbable Classics – Prada Temporary Store.”
In: Kenji Yoshida (Ed.). Architecture and Urbanism. 3 Temporary Works + Architecture in Luxembourg. Vol. No. 433, Tokyo, A+U Publishing Co., Ltd., 10.2006. pp. 32-37.