Miu Miu has unveiled a new store designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron in the Aoyama district of Tokyo. The 720m2 building on Miyuki street is sited diagonally across the street from the crystalline Prada Aoyama, completed by Herzog & de Meuron in 2003. In contrast to the transparency of the all-glass Prada building, the understated metallic surface of the Miu Miu façade is opaque, which lends the project an intimate quality.
More like a home than a department store, more hidden than open, more understated than extravagant, more opaque than transparent, Miu Miu Aoyama is placed directly at street level, its cover slightly open to mark the entrance and allow pedestrians to look inside.
There, under the oversized canopy, the two-storey interior is visible at a single glance, as if the volume had been sliced open with a knife, turning the inside out. Miu Miu Aoyama is the latest project of an ongoing collaboration between Herzog & de Meuron and Prada, which started more than 15 years ago.
all images courtesy of MIU MIU