MVRDV designs Tiffany & Co.’s with gems

 The stunning façade of Tiffany & Co.’s Shanghai store is built of handcrafted glass diamonds that sparkle with LED lights at night and reflect light during the day.

MVRDV created the jewel-inspired façade for Tiffany & Co.’s Shanghai shop, which is housed in the Taikoo-Li Qiantan retail complex. The exterior screen of the façade, which is made up of 6,988 individually handmade glass “diamonds,” is reminiscent of Tiffany’s well-known jewellery designs. These components give the surrounding area a sparkling aspect during the day by reflecting and refracting light, while at night the LED lighting on the façade lets the store shine in an endless variety of hues.

Located in the middle of Taikoo Li Qiantan, a shopping centre finished in 2021, the store occupies a prominent position. A diamond façade is a striking and deceptively simple concept that sets MVRDV’s design apart from the rest of the retail zone, which is dedicated to a wide range of premium goods.

This concept, despite its seeming simplicity, is supported by a thorough knowledge of Tiffany’s background and identity. The project is an extension of MVRDV’s Tiffany façade design approach, which Changi Airport in Singapore saw firsthand implementation of last year. This strategy honours Tiffany’s history by emphasising ideas like inventive materiality, a strong sense of three-dimensionality, and the capacity to astonish spectators. The glass diamond screen in Shanghai is a manifestation of all these ideas. These are arranged to provide the impression of being haphazardly dispersed, thinning out for better sight where necessary, as next to the café on the first floor of the building.

These glass gems each weigh 1.5 kg and measure 21 centimeters in width and 13 centimeters in height. They are suspended by thin, highly tensioned steel wires that are sandwiched between the structure’s top and bottom frames and have a mirrored steel finish applied to them. The diamonds are held in place by tiny, inconspicuous steel fasteners that are specially made to prevent movement or spinning. Because of the meticulous design, the façade only has mechanical connections, which means that it can be disassembled entirely and its components recycled or repurposed in the future.

Similar to MVRDV’s earlier design for the Tiffany’s store at Singapore Airport, the Shanghai store’s façade has a distinctive element from the surrounding area; in this case, it was inspired by Shanghai’s skyline’s vivid light displays. As a result, the concept incorporates LED lighting that changes colour and uses less energy onto the façade’s top and bottom. As a result, the façade can be lighted in any colour, including the iconic Tiffany Blue ®, and the glass diamonds’ refractive qualities will bring each colour to life.

For more details, visit: https://www.mvrdv.com/

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