Owner: Marie-Hélène de Taillac
Location: 3-7-9 Kita-Aoyama Minato-Ku, Tokyo - Japan
Programme: Design and installation of a shop
Scope: Design and construction management assistance
Designer: Marc Newson
Associate Architect: Sébastien Segers
Site Architect, General contractor: D. Brain Co Ltd.
Area: 60 sqm
Completion: 2005 - Design development 4 months, works 4 months
Photo Credit: Nacasa & Partners
In the heart of the Aoyama district, a true test area for architecture and design, the shop of the jewel designer Marie- Hélène de Taillac contrasts strongly with its minimal aspect. It is located on the ground floor of a small two level building. Having cleaned, as much as possible, the given space, the Architect and the Designer have installed a large U shape show window, with rounded angles, only keeping one column along the facade. The assembly is topped with a strip cladded with small white ceramic tiles in which appears the red ceramic logo of the jewel designer.
Sébastien Segers has applied the Feng Shui principles to the Project. Therefore the energies can easily flow. There is no area where the customer may feel blocked. The walls, with rounded angles, are coated with a blue shining lacquer. The floor is covered with white leather. This leather is also used for the Marc Newson furniture that marks the premises. This case, quite disconcerting by its bareness, conceals the jewels of Marie-Hélène de Taillac in drawers set under mystifying small lit holes housing tiny figures.
Four months were enough for the team to design and realise this shop, with the help of the Japanese architectural and contractor studio D. Brain.
