Introduction

In the 90s almost every luxury stores were in search of new ways to
promote their products. Billboards, television commercials and magazine
ads did not attract the number of target audience and how to display their
products was a common theme to all of them.

Over time they realized something had known all along, “the product
packaging is sometimes as important as the product itself.” And when the
product is trying to promote its own brand, then the brand packing should
be as attractive as their products. Thus appeared the notion of
“luxutecture” exterior architectural design in order to promote a brand.
Gucci, Prada, Burberry, and others embarked on a mission to make sure
that the outside of their shops look as well as the inside and the products
they sell.

When Tod maca Omotesando store opened its had already been built
several prominent buildings responding to the concept of “luxury
building”, but the new building, the architect Toyo Ito, created great
expectations for its innovative design.

Location

Tod’s building, is located in Yoyogi 01/05/15, Omotesando, the famous

tree-lined avenue and the most prestigious shopping street Tokyo in the
Aoyama district, Japan.

Concept

The building is surrounded by a skin of interlocking concrete supports

and glass, mimicking the trees lining the street.
The organic effect outside of the building is particularly impressive in the
cooler months, when the bare branches of the elms near reflected in the
building. The facade design mimics the natural growth patterns of the
trees nearby, and as luck would have on the sidewalk near the door has
several trees whose branches run counter to most of the super-structure
of the building, creating a mirror image of the nature of the architecture
created by man. The branching design is based on the Serpentine
Gallery in London.

New concept of surface

Throughout the Omotesando area were built many stores for luxury
brands. By choosing concrete as building material Toyo Ito makes a bold
proposal, the use of a substantial material and strong, absent in the
“glass architecture” of the adjacent buildings.

“… This concrete structure, however, is not used just as in conventional

architecture to express the volume or the massiveness of the walls.
Rather than being simply a pattern or structure in this building acquires a
new dimension in relation to the notion of surface.
The various studies began with the question: “How can we escape the
conventional notion of the structure of a wall?”. The architectural team
was looking for a way to avoid openings in a volume transparent opaque.
Instead of differentiating transparency opacity, is looking for a new
method that defined yet, simultaneously, the join, trying to relate all lines
(columns), surfaces (walls), and openings in an innovative. Studies
suddenly moved in a different direction after the formulation of the
question: “Should not it be possible to create a surface like structure that
directly expresses the flow of force, if formed as a structural diagram
drawn as a pattern thick lines on a flat surface? ”

After going through this process, conceived the idea of using an

integrated structure by overlapping silhouettes of trees, in a sense,
suddenly.

Our address is created with a certain emotion when, after several

investigations, we find that through tree form could achieve several
conditions in an innovative way that is very different from the
conventional geometry. Trees are known for organisms themselves, and
therefore, its shape has an inherent structural rationality. The pattern of
overlapping tree silhouettes also generates rational force flows. Adapted
branched tree diagram, as it moves up the building, becoming thinner
and numerous branches, with a higher proportion of openings.
Therefore, the building interior spaces unfolds showing slightly different
atmospheres in relation to the various intended uses.

Rejecting the obvious differences between walls and openings, lines and
planes, two and three dimensions, transparency and opacity, this
building is characterized by a distinctive type of abstraction. Tree
silhouette creates a new image with a constant voltage generated by the
symbolic realization of the building and its abstract nature. For this
project, intended to create a new building for its architectural express
both the living presence of a fashion brand and its strength in the urban
landscape endure the test of time… “(Toyo Ito

Spaces and materials

The slender building as the design architect for the firm Tod could
showcase their products on the famous Tokyo Omotesando is L-shaped
and is used for offices and retail store of the Italian firm. On the top floor,
with a garden terrace, reserved a space for meetings and other events.

The seven-storey building at the Toyo Ito continues with the exploration
of their ideas surface. Inside, hidden opaque glass rear view so buyers
are attracted to the front of the store in which play an important role in
the animation of the construction. At night and internal lighting are best
organic forms of its design.

Interior

Light enters the building through the transparent glass that fills the
spaces between the concrete supports on the front facade on the north
side. The glass is opaque to the south, facing rows of low private homes
that provide extra daylight in the building. The building has 270 openings,
200 of which are only 70 combined with glass and aluminum.

The concrete supports also serve as space dividers inside the building in
which natural materials, stone, wood and leather, reflect the quality of the
products displayed.
Exterior

The depth of the concrete structure offers a neutral green tone, the color
effect is the result of reflection of colored glass. Moreover, since the
glass has no frame, creates a sense of bewilderment, as a whole, the
visual appearance resembles a pattern drawn on a plane.
The rear entrance to the building is shaped like a “house of tales”,
contrasting with a door located on the right side, rectangular frameless
steel sheet and firmly fixed in the same plane as the concrete wall.

Structure

The innovative structure created by architect with concrete walls and

glass shaped tree branches causes are structural and surround the
building six sides, creating a spectacular visual effect and allowing a
wide glass entrance.

The power architectural nonstructural curtain walls in modern

architecture led to the creation of the “free facade”. With new
construction technologies for concrete and glass, Ito has created a new
freedom in a structural wall. In this respect the architect says:
“Omotesando Tod… The building is an ambitious project that
incorporates cutting-edge concepts and techniques in contemporary
architecture. With this project I strive to transcend architectural
modernism that characterized the twentieth century… ”

Due to its narrow L-shaped façade was designed branched structure that
unifies the volume. This outer surface serves as both a graphic pattern
and structural system. It is built with reinforced concrete 30cm thick and
embedded therein frameless glasses. The resulting surface supports the
floor slabs that extend between 10 to 15 meters without any internal
column.

Facade Description

The facade with interlocking concrete supports reinterprets the

silhouettes of the elm trees lining the street. The division of plants is
reflected in the transparent structure and not by the route of the facade
has been designed following the pattern generated by the superposition
of nine trees. Following the structural logic of botany, the columns are
wider at the base of the building and become more slender as they gain
altitude, and also branch out into more structural elements.

Is a block with a glass curtain wall, supported by the concrete and steel
members. What is striking in its exterior design is that the members are
arranged so as to cause the building to challenge your own way. Instead
of the rigid mathematical angles and curves to classical architecture by
man, the outer tent structure Tod is surrounded by large, smooth curves
and bifurcations that emulate organic forms.

To avoid glass breakage, for a possible earthquake, the structure is

supported on a cushion placed on the foundation, which is common in
Japanese buildings.

Branched structures are not simply a two-dimensional network abroad,

also run by the interior, serving as decoration, a division of sections, and
even unusual marking stairs. In some areas the soil is glass sections can
not be enabled because the glass used is not strong enough to withstand
pedestrian traffic must be closed with metal fences.
The unification between the outer and inner form was possible because
the architect created both. Usually there is an architect for construction
and one for the inside. In this case, one person is responsible for
creating the building, and the result justified the risk.