La Maison Unique

Heatherwick Studio was invited by Longchamp to design its first contemporary flagship store. With a retail space situated above street level, the challenge was to draw people up into the store from the street. The studio's solution uses natural light from a large glazed core cut through the building to draw people up a stair landscape to the floor above. Constructed in one-and-a-quarter inch hot-rolled steel, the stair landscape is an installation of ribbon-like forms that divide and converge to form walkways and steps. The project includes the construction of a third storey, incorporating showroom, offices and a roof garden.