PRADA SPONGE, USA, LOS ANGELES, 2004
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) www.oma.eu
Designer
Rem Koolhaas
The projects for the Italian fashion company Prada span from research on shopping and new concepts for Prada as a brand to the creation of three big stores in the United States. But beyond restructuring the physical reality of the braPRADA SPONGE, USA, LOS ANGELES, 2004 nd, Prada’s virtual presence is simultaneously defined through extensive in-store technology projects and the creation of a website. The combination of these aspects generates an integrated service structure that enables Prada to provide a new sense of exclusivity, but also to reinforce the diverse and intriguing aura of the brand.
Sponge
In addition to the broadening of the typological environments, the research and development of new materials expands the interior palette of the stores. Ranging from translucent cast resin for shelves to bubble-textured silicone mats for floors, the creation of a new substance called ‘foam’ manifests the most radical redefinition of surface and material.
Foam is a Polyurethane cast of an aggregate condition between solid and void. It is a both irregular and regular structure of sponge-like consistency that can be cast in stages from hard to soft and from transparent to opaque. It forms a substance out of which objects can be build, but also entire spaces can be carved out, itself an interpretation of solid and void.
The development started with an architectural model using a regular cleaning sponge. As the visual effect of this backlit texture was very intriguing, an extensive search was initiated to recreate this material in 1:1 scale. Many hundred tests and prototypes were handmade in order to test hole sizes, percentages of openness, translucencies, depths, colors, etc.
Simultaneously, mass production- and 3-d computer modeling techniques were investigated that could help translating the properties of the handcrafted prototypes and all technical requirements into the final product. Methods from Stereolithography to CNC controlled milling processes and specific casting techniques were developed and employed. Along the way, an entirely new Polyurethane composite was generated to comply with fire and building codes.
Foam in its multiple and ambiguous deviations offers a new definition of functional and visual properties between artificial and natural, irregular and regular, transparent, translucent or solid, flexible or rigid.
FACT SHEET
Project:
Prada Sponge
Client:
Prada (I.P.I. USA Corp.)
Program:
Material research and development, production
COLLABORATORS
Conceptual Development:
Werkplaats de Rijk/Parthesius
Detailed Development:
Panelite – New Crazy Colors
Production:
New Crazy Colors srl – Ram Contract
