Reversal of Misfortune

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 4/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Marc by Marc Jacobs in Tokyo by Stephan Jaklitsch Architects. Photo by Kozo Takayama.

A facade that didn't embrace shoppers but receded from them. A tight 4,800 square feet, split between three levels. Before this Tokyo property could become a boutique fit for the bridge label Marc by Marc Jacobs, Stephan Jaklitsch Architects had to get to the bottom of the situation—or, in this case, the back. Gutting interior walls allowed the architects to expose the switchback staircase at the rear and hang an oversize LED screen on the landing, facing out. As Stephan Jaklitsch explains, this creates a “dual-layer facade” that reads from the street, seamlessly mirroring the vibrancy of the Harajuku retail corridor. He preserved the new sight lines by defining the space largely with clear glass. Transformed by blue film, a glass wall separates the stairs from the sunglasses display and cash-wrap area on the ground level and from the fitting rooms above. When it came to mimicking limitlessness in such limited quarters, Jaklitsch relied on the obvious: mirror. Who says every solution takes a revolution?


Marc by Marc Jacobs in Tokyo by Stephan Jaklitsch Architects. Photo by Kozo Takayama.