People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Unless that is the House of Chanel.
In designing the new Chanel flagship boutique in Amsterdam, design firm MVRDV was determined to turn a historic townhouse into a modern storefront without completely wiping out the character of the original architecture. The company used glass bricks, windows frames and architraves to recreate the city’s traditional architectural style for the new luxury boutique.
As Dezeen reports, the glass bricks are held together by high-strength glue and proved “stronger than concrete” during testing.
“Crystal Houses make space for a remarkable flagship store, respect the structure of the surroundings and bring a poetic innovation in glass construction,” said MVRDV. “It enables global brands to combine the overwhelming desire of transparency with a couleur locale, and modernity with heritage. It can thus be applied everywhere in our historic centers.”
The boutique also runs on renewable energy sources, having been built around a ground source heat pump with 560 feet of pipes that supply an optimal indoor temperature year-round.
If you’re in the area, visit Chanel’s new boutique at the address below:
Chanel Amsterdam
Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat 66H,
1071 CA Amsterdam,
Netherlands
