The Beginning of Space Branding: Prada Epicenter

  Jooyun Kim's 

Spacebranding vol.14

"Prada has imprinted on the public what 'Prada luxury' is with one marvelous space."

<Guggenheim Museum to Prada flagship store.>

In 2001, a spacebranding space was created in Soho, Manhattan, New York. 'New York Prada Epicenter' is a Prada flagship store. The author takes this space as the beginning of a true modern "spacebranding."

'New York Prada Epicenter', Soho, New York ©Jooyun Kim

Soho New York © Jooyun Kim

Prada opened the Guggenheim Museum branch in Soho, which once led American art to the center of the world and was a leading art street, to the public as a flagship store. However, the store's approach was fundamentally different from before. It's a store that doesn't look like a store at all.

Prada eliminated the area by drilling nearly half of the ground floor in Manhattan's Soho, where the price per floor area is high. The first floor and the basement are directly connected with a wooden curve shaped like a ‘Half-pipe’ in a skateboarding arena. Prada imprinted what Prada's Luxury was to the public as a form of this marvelous space, a huge waste of area.

'New York Prada Epicenter' ©Jooyun Kim

‘New York Prada Epicenter' ©Jooyun Kim

<‘Space’ for Prada’s revival.>

To build this flagship store, it cost 40 million dollars, or 48 billion Korean Won, at the time. Interestingly, the project began as a life-and-death project to transfuse new blood into Prada when almost went bankrupt. 

Prada chose ‘space’ rather than ‘product’ as a new way for the brand to approach the public in the life and death of Prada. It was Miuccia Prada, the granddaughter of the founder of Prada and the chief designer of Prada, who decided to revive Prada as a new 'space'.

from https://2x4.org/work/prada-wallpapers

Miuccia considered the spatial orientation of Prada at a time when the status of store space as a physical place was disappearing due to the proliferation of online shopping. She knew that it was difficult for commercial space to exist as a means to achieve a specific purpose, as museums, libraries, airports, hospitals, and schools were increasingly indistinguishable from shopping centers.

<Iconic Architect's Choice.>

She went to Rem Koolhaas after decided to set up a Guggenheim branch in Soho as a space to build a new flagship in New York. It could have been possible to select already proven designers such as Peter Marino, famous for his luxury brand architects such as Chanel.

But she chose an architect who had never done a luxury brand space before. Rem Koolhaas was the leader of OMA Architects' office, which presented shocking and unfamiliar architecture with experimental work on every project. Miuccia made a challenging decision to choose a designer Lamkolhas to save Prada. Her courage was the foundation for Prada's successful rehabilitation.

As a result, the space created by the meeting between the iconic brand Prada and the iconic architect Ram Koolhaas aroused a lot of public interest. As the space was used as the background of the TV drama Sex in the City, which had a great influence on young women at the time, the impression of Prada was presented to the public in a very new way.

<Prada's Confidence in the Store.>

In an interview with Bloomberg TV's Charlie Rose show in the US, Rem Koolhaas shared the story behind the birth of Prada as follows. At the first meeting, Miuccia said, "We don't want you to re-enact the Prada way. We want you to change the way we think about shopping. We want a completely different image of shopping space.”1)

from https://2x4.org/work/prada-wallpapers

At the time, Rem Koolhaas was teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 1997 to 1998. Coincidentally, through classes, I studied shopping phenomena as the primary aspect of urban life with students. He was also writing <The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping>, about the evolution of the consumer environment and urbanization based on him.

<The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping> Harvard Design School Project on the City, 2002

He said he was still not sure about Prada's new shopping space and asked Miuccia to give him three months to organize his thoughts on Prada's shopping space and suggest a direction. He asked for a three-month grace period to decide whether to take the job or not.

Ramkolhas asked each other to work together if they were convinced of the direction of the future shopping space he would propose three months later. Through site analysis, Rem Koolhaas discovered that Soho is a cultural place, where cultural and commercial stores are gathered like a piece of paper. Through a three-month study, Lamkolhas organized Prada's luxury into five concepts.

1) Luxury is 'Attention.' = Amazing impression.

2) Luxury is "Rough." = Rough ingredients

3) Luxury is 'Intelgence.' = Digital interaction

3) Luxury is 'Waste.' = Space waste

4) Luxury is "Stability." = Various uses

<The birth of a new definition of luxury, 'spacebranding'.>

In the end, three months later, Rem Koolhaas presented a shopping space that was completely different from the existing consumer-oriented shopping space. That is Prada's overwhelming experience of spacebranding space, which is still in use 20 years later. ‘New York Prada Epicenter’ is a place where the total sensory experiences of the brand Prada unfold.

The main character of this flagship is not Prada products, but the space itself. Like installation art in a gallery, customers encounter Prada's products in the process of a playful spatial experience. Regarding this approach, Miuccia Prada says, “Art is what makes the store more interesting.”

'New York Prada Epicenter' ©Jooyun Kim

As a result of research on rediscovering retail experiences for three months, Rem Koolhaas minimized product display on the first floor and made all shopping activities take place on the basement floor. The first floor looks like a combination of a long church and an art gallery. When entering the main entrance, one wall of the entire length of the building, which occupies one block of the city, gives a change to the space with a huge and powerful image for each season.

'New York Prada Epicenter' ©Jooyun Kim

In some seasons, the wall becomes a wallpaper for Prada, and in other seasons, it becomes a wall for exhibiting works in collaboration with artists. This long wall, analog media wall, has been designed by 2X4, a New York design consulting firm, every season from the beginning until now.

from https://2x4.org/work/prada-wallpapers



from https://2x4.org/work/prada-wallpapers

from https://2x4.org/work/prada-wallpapers

from https://2x4.org/work/prada-wallpapers

<Space branding through the publicity of the store.>

As soon as customers enter, they face a cage-like metal wire mesh and a cylindrical transparent elevator hanging from the ceiling throughout the space. As if the saint's relics are displayed in a holy cathedral, the movable wire mesh display boxes in a unique way contain a new object of worship, Prada's fashion products.

from https://buro-os.com/projects/prada-epicenter-new-york



Cylindrical Transparent Elevator "New York Prada Epicenter" © Jooyun Kim

Cylindrical Transparent Elevator "New York Prada Epicenter" © Jooyun Kim

The cylindrical transparent elevator that dominates the first floor has the purpose of a gigantic display rather than the purpose of vertical movement. It is said that the construction of this cylindrical elevator alone cost $1 million and took 10 months. The intensity of the half-pipe shape, which penetrates half of the total floor area of ​​the first floor and connects to the basement, hides devices that can accommodate various events such as fashion shows. The space is not fixed and in a way it is insecure.

The insecurity of spatial form embraces Prada's public activities as a strategy for Prada by Rem Koolhaas. It becomes a venue for film screenings, music performances, fashion shows, lectures, and galleries on weekends or at certain times. With its ever-changing and operational program, "New York Prada Epicenter" has always become a new and tempting public place.

from https://buro-os.com/projects/prada-epicenter-new-york

from https://www.oma.com/projects/prada-epicenter-new-york



Miuccia Prada says "Good taste is boring. Basically, you have to work with what's bad and wrong."2) Epic Center's spatial impression and operating program clearly brand the PRADA's 'Why' that Miuccia said.

from https://2x4.org/work/prada-wallpapers

<5 Summaries>

"Prada has imprinted on the public what 'Prada luxury' is with one marvelous space."

"We don't want you to re-enact the Prada way. We want you to change the way we think about shopping. We want a completely different image of shopping space."

"Epic Center's spatial impression and operating program clearly brand the PRADA's 'Why' that Miuccia said."

"The insecurity of spatial form embraces Prada's public activities as a strategy for Prada by Rem Koolhaas."

"Miuccia Prada says, "Art is what makes the store more interesting."

Jooyun Kim <Spacebranding> pp. 26-29

1) Rem Koolhaas Interview(2002), from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGAGkZrWzHI
2) ‘김제환, 경계를 넘나드는 능력’, from https://lightcebu.org/2017/02/06