'BUILDING FASHION' 2011

A new competition launched by non-profit arts and culture organization BOFFO looks at the connections between design and retail spaces.

Text by Anna Battista

In the last few years there have been quite a few projects about retail spaces involving prominent architects and famous fashion houses: Prada developed collaborations with Rem Koolhaas, while Milan-based architectural firm Piuarch worked with Dolce & Gabbana, exploring the possibilities of creating retail spaces inspired by the “glocal” principle and alternative solutions to the “Dubai effect”, that is contemporary projects referred to or integrated in specific contexts.

In March the Paris-based F(AA)shion workshop at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratif, part of the international visiting programme of the Architectural Association School of Architecture, also investigated the issue of innovative retail spaces through lectures in which students where asked to think about offering customers hospitable gallery-like spaces that went from multimodal to mobile pop-up stores.

It looks like the fashion and architecture connection will strengthen in the next few months also thanks to specific projects tackling this connection.

Amongst the latest projects looking at the architecture and fashion connection there is indeed a competition launched by New York-based non-profit arts and culture organization BOFFO in collaboration with architect Spilios Giannakopoulos.

Entitled “Building Fashion”, the competition – launched in partnership with Architizer – is actually in its second year.

The concept behind the competition is very simple: architects and architectural firms are asked to send projects for retail installations dedicated to five different fashion houses and brands, including Mugler, jewellery designer Irene Neuwirth, menswear designer Patrik Ervell, lingerie brand The Lake & Stars and womenswear design duo Ohne Titel.

The jury includes BOFFO, Architizer and industry leaders including DS&R’s Charles Renfro, Architectonic’s Winka Dubbledam, High Line Co-Founder Robert Hammond and other industry professionals. Winning architects will be warded $20,000 that will go towards the installation.

Projects will be showcased in New York at the new BOFFO location, 57 Walker Street. Every two weeks starting from September 2011 the retail spaces will change, showcasing a different project.

This is not the first time BOFFO launches such an event: last year the non-profit organisation teamed with Giannakopoulos working on the first “Building Fashion” competition that included a series of six installations – among them also retail spaces by Snarkitecture for Richard Chai, Leong + Leong for Siki Im, Urban A&O for Heather Huey and Christian Wassmann for House of Waris – located on the site of Neil M. Denari Architects’ HL23 in the Chelsea Arts District.

The call to this second competition (deadline: 4^th July) is accompanied by different videos with designers explaining their vision and in some cases also talking about the connections between their collections and architecture.

Some videos are perfectly spot on: Ohne Titel’s Alexa Adams and Flora Gill talk for example about their architectural materials and volumes or graphic silhouettes and shapes; Patrik Ervell mentions the construction behind his designs and the sets for his catwalk shows while The Lake & Stars hint at the importance of understanding who is their customer to create a coherent retail environment. These issues are rather interesting as they allow architects to have a clearer vision of what the designers involved are looking for.

If you’re interested in the “Building Fashion” theme and you’re a student, you can also start enrolling in the next Paris-based workshop by the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

Incidentally also entitled “Building Fashion” it will look at issues such as technology and couture, experimental prototyping and, last but not least, developing cutting edge creations through stereoscopic 3-D technology. Guess you have no excuses this year not to delve further into the relation between fashion and architecture.