What are the Prada Epicenters about?
Rem: They are meant to be read against the background of the generic Prada store, which is a repetitive module. These try to be as different as possible in each case. We did one in New York; Herzog & de Meuron did one in Tokyo. There are more coming in China and different places. Ole: Usually when clients approach an architect there is a clear brief but not necessarily a clear idea of what they need. With Prada there was absolutely no brief, but there was a very clear analysis of their situation: they had grown from a small family business to a worldwide fashion empire, and this meant they couldn’t keep on doing things the way they had before. So the sameness they had built up became at that point almost dangerous; it was an uber-identity that became too repetitive. Rem: I hate both the word “brand” and the word “identity”. Prada’s gambit has been to avoid both. Ole: There was something nice Miuccia [Prada] said a few days ago. She said what she likes about this store is it allows her
