Here the maison Louis Vuitton has been a presence since 1981, in the same location on a corner. Today the company offers the immersive experience of a complete lifestyle, aimed at enhancing a single sensorial aspect: to grasp the secret of materials and of a luxury that is passed down across time, as a synonym of extreme quality and attention to detail, resulting from refined craftsmanship of surfaces, be they in leather, wood, glass, paper or chocolate, micro or macro, associated with architecture, product design or food. ”As I thought about this volume, I was fascinated and inspired by a Japanese-style painting by Heihachiro Fukuda, Sazanami (Ripples), a work that conveys the shimmering of the water’s surface in ultramarine blue on a sheet of platinum,” Jun Aoki explains.
“I had designed the previous Louis Vuitton store of Ginza Namiki with the image of a magic lantern, driven by the idea of creating a fantastic projection of light in its perimeter. But this time I went further: I wanted to insert the sparkle of water in architecture,” he continues. “So I mixed two layers of glass, smooth, undulated and corrugated panes, rhythmically paced in the water effect, also thanks to the introduction of a dichroic film that reproduces its infinite tones. A difficult challenge. It took many attempts to develop a device capable of making the chromatic distortion of the surface perceptible, depending on the orientation and the angle of the light.” This has become the expressive plus of an organic, limpid beauty, of luminosity and transparency very close to true enchantment, which Aoki has shared in total tune with Peter Marino, the American architect who, like him, had already created projects in the past for the French company.