© daria scagliola & stijn brakkee
The newly opened Flagship store of Chanel in Amsterdam illuminates with a new space design surrounded by transparent glass facades. Dutch architecture and urban planning firm MVRDV created a glass extension onto the existing building’s bricks to mimic original facade creating a design that seems to float above the stone building. MVRDV and the Research team that worked on the project bring a high-rise innovation in the glass construction industry.
© daria scagliola & stijn brakkee
“Crystal Houses make space for a remarkable flagship store, respect the structure of the surroundings and bring a poetic innovation in glass construction. It enables global brands to combine the overwhelming desire of transparency with a couleur locale and modernity with heritage. It can thus be applied everywhere in our historic centres.” –Winy Maas, architect and co-founder of MVRDV.
© daria scagliola & stijn brakkee
Research undertaken by Delft University of Technology and the Glass and Transparency research group formulated an astonishing invention converting glass facades to mimic bricks. To acquire maximum transparency, the researchers chose to work with stone of soda-lime-silica glass. Six to ten experts worked every day for a whole year in a place that bore more resemblance to a laboratory than a construction site. These stones are made from sand with low iron content.
© daria scagliola & stijn brakkee
The implementation of the facade in the P.C. Hooftstraat in Amsterdam was a labour-intensive one. The materials used and time spent on construction made the facade pricey, also because of the price of the glass stones at fifty euros a piece. Still, there is great interest worldwide for the innovation and soon this new glass invention can go beyond Amsterdam.
Words: Gabriela Venkova