Page 20 - Architectural Digest - USA (February 2020)

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1. OBJETS NOMADES
COCOON BY FERNANDO
AND HUMBERTO
CAMPANA. 2. GEHRY’S
GLASS PANELS CROWN
THE FAÇADE. 3. THE
ENTRY. 4. OBJETS
NOMADES TALISMAN
TRAY BY INDIA MAHDAVI.
5. SOFT TRUNK.

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W e wanted a lantern on the street,”
Frank Gehry says of the new
Seoul flagship he designed for
Louis Vuitton. “Something open
and inviting.” Perched atop the
tony Cheongdam-dong ward in
the Gangnam shopping district, with the Bukhansan
mountains as a backdrop, the five-story beacon of
light is the first retail space that the Pritzker Prize
winner has completed since the early days of his
career—and his first for the French luxury brand. Of
course, the two are familiar friends following their
collaboration on the Fondation Louis Vuitton,
unveiled in Paris in 2014.
With curved glass panels that stretch up toward
the sky like sails, the Seoul boutique is both an
evolution of the Paris building and a reflection of the KI-YONG NAM (2): PRODUCT: COURTESY OF LOUIS VUITTON
architect’s deep appreciation for Asian culture. Gehry,
who has two half-Korean granddaughters, found
inspiration for the store in the swooping movements
of the traditional Dongnae Hakchum crane dance.
“I’m always looking for ways to create feeling with
three-dimensional materials,” he notes. “I love dance
because it expresses movement as sculpture.”
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