United Kingdom | John Lewis Department Store and Cineplex | Foreign Office Architects

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Commissioned within a larger city centre regeneration scheme, the John Lewis department store and Cineplex challenge the conventional blank envelopes which typify these buildings and explore ways for them to connect to an urban context.



John Lewis Department Store and Cineplex (Photo: Helene Binet)

John Lewis

The department store skin has been designed as a ‘net curtain’ – a patterned fabric which permits interior arrangements to be changed without creating exterior clutter yet providing views and natural light to the interiors. FOA’s pattern design, which resonates with Leicester’s rich textile heritage and John Lewis’s own tradition of producing quality fabrics, is formed of four panels of varying density which meet seamlessly across the envelope, transmitting a fabric affect. Frit in mirror onto two layers of glass curtain wall, the mirrored pattern reflects its context and in doing so, densifies and changes as the sun moves around the building. Viewed frontally from the retail floors, the double façade aligns to allow views out, whilst an oblique view from street level displaces the two patterns and creates a moiré effect, reducing visibility and maximizing privacy performance, and increasing visual complexity. The resulting envelope is a translucent and reflective ‘net curtain’ via which the interior and exterior engage with the context in varying ways.



John Lewis Department Store: Entrance (Photo: Satoru Mishima)



John Lewis Department Store: Entrance (Photo: Satoru Mishima)



John Lewis Department Store: Façade Detail (Photo: Lube Saveski)



John Lewis Department Store: Interior (Photo: FOA)

Cineplex

The Cineplex needs to be a sealed box, detached from natural light. This part of the building is enveloped in an opaque stainless steel mirror finish rain screen, with pleats along the perimeter introducing intricacy to the enclosure. It is clad in 10,300 small, steel shingles whose thinness transmits a quilted affect and varies and localizes surface reflections. The pleats, shingles and mirror finish provide shadow, texture and color, while the play of light on the surface creates continuously shifting patterns. The opaque envelope is therefore transformed to a ‘theatrical curtain’ whose performance is relative to its exterior.



The Cineplex - Street View (Photo: FOA)



The Cineplex - Street View (Photo: Satoru Mishima)



The Cineplex - Façade Detail (Photo: Helene Binet)

Fonte: Archinect