BIG converts 1930s bank to create major new store for Galeries Lafayette in Paris
Bjarke Ingels' firm has created a "retail laboratory" for French department store Galeries Lafayette inside an art-deco bank on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
BIG sought to celebrate the history of the 1930s building, matching its original art-deco details with opulent displays.
But the space is designed to function as more than just a store ? Galeries Lafayette sees it as hybrid retail model, which will be used for hosting fashion shows, brand events and other activities.
"The raw space has an almost urban scale and character that makes it capable of accommodating even the wildest interventions, which makes me excited to imagine what I might expect to find here next time I come back," said Bjarke Ingels.
"And it shows me that Galleries Lafayette is not only opening a new department store on Champs-Élysées, rather, they have opened up a new urban room for the Parisians," he explained.
The move will be a first for the brand, which started when Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn started selling fashion items from their haberdashery store on Rue La Fayette in 1895. It is now the city's most important luxury department store, with branches across France and around the world.
"Working with a family and a company that can look back 100 years gives you, not only the possibility, but actually the responsibility to attempt to look as far ahead as you can look back," explained Ingels.
"With the advent and omnipresence of online retail...
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