Email has been around since the 1960s, file sharing since the 1970s, standardization of TCP/IP happened in 1982 and the World Wide Web was established in 1989. By 2000 when we were invited by Issey Miyake to make a proposal for the company’s U.S. headquarters in a historic three-story warehouse in Tribeca, half the population of the U.S. was accessing information through the internet (refs. 2, 3, and 4).
Inspired by Miyake’s experimentation with materials we explored the physical properties of the invisible network wiring global communications. Using optical fiber strands as a ‘dumb’ material, we proposed in an extensive light transmitting weave that permeates the fashion flagship’s ground floor and subterranean levels.
LOCATION:
New York, USA
year:
2000
site:
9,000 sqf
program:
Retail
systems and materials:
Steel, concrete, optical fiber and wood
client:
Issey Miyake
project team:
Lindy Roy with Albert Angel and Anthony Burke
related projects:
Vitra, Natura Brasil, L’Oreal Paris, Noah’s, Okavango Delta Spa
exhibitions:
Henry Urbach Architecture, X Roy Projects
SFMOMA, ROY Design Series 1
publications:
bob: International Magazine of Space Design (2005)
references: