Catwalk shopping

The latest “invention” by London artist-designer Thomas Heatherwick takes the form of a sinuous steel sculpture, that from the third floor descends down to the pavement, weighing 55 tonnes and requiring six months of hand crafting to make.

by Elena Sommariva

Set up a dramatic installation with a theatrical effect guaranteed to compensate for the unhappy location of the headquarters of a French brand of luxury accessories; a historic building with a modest presence on the street, little space on the ground floor and large rooms only on the upper level. This is how the long thick orange ribbon came about that accompanies visitors around the new Longchamp shop in New York.

The latest “invention” by London artist-designer Thomas Heatherwick takes the form of a sinuous steel sculpture, that from the third floor descends down to the pavement, weighing 55 tonnes and requiring six months of hand crafting to make.

The entire shop is in the name of moving flexibility. From the floor made with alternating levels that create display surfaces for bags and accessories, right up to the ceiling clad in wooden panels that descend down to the floor in a series of “cascading” scaffolds. Even the handrail and balustrade makes use of advanced aerospace technology in the creation of glass panels with a soft shape almost like fabric.

To emphasise the “magnetic” quality of the walkway, the lighting design and display in the ground floor windows and entrance features a system of mobile lights and versatile pedestals that are hooked onto the steel with super strong magnets. Finally, a third level was added to the building to house offices, a showroom and a garden terrace.

An outsider in terms of the design world – part inventor, part sculptor – Heatherwick has put together a collection of designs of extraordinarily heterogeneous scale: from a pedestrian bridge that rolls up on itself to an innovative shop window for Harvey Nichols that, revolutionising the relationship between interior and exterior, comes out onto the pavement; and a bag (also for the French brand) and a Buddhist temple in Japan.  

http://www.thomasheatherwick.com

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