Diamond-encrusted façade for Tiffany & Co. store, Modern East China architecture, Chinese commercial images

Diamond-encrusted façade for Tiffany & Co. store, Shanghai

5 July 2024

Architects: MVRDV

Location: Taikoo-Li Qiantan retail development, Shanghai, China

Photos © Wen Studio

Diamond-encrusted façade for Tiffany & Co. store, China

Located in the Taikoo-Li Qiantan retail development, Tiffany & Co.’s store in Shanghai features a jewel-inspired façade designed by MVRDV. With an external screen composed of 6,988 handcrafted glass “diamonds”, the façade evokes clear associations to Tiffany’s renowned jewellery designs. During the day, these elements reflect and refract the surroundings, resulting in a glittering effect, while at night the façade’s LED lighting allows the store to shine in an infinite range of colours.

The store takes a prominent position on the central axis of Taikoo Li Qiantan, a retail centre that was completed in 2021. With the southern half of this retail zone dedicated to a wide range of luxury brands, MVRDV’s design stands out from the crowd with a bold and deceptively simple concept: a façade made of diamonds.

Despite its apparent simplicity, this idea is underpinned by a deep understanding of Tiffany’s identity and history. The project represents a continuation of MVRDV’s strategy for Tiffany façade designs, which was first implemented last year at Singapore’s Changi Airport. This approach pays homage to Tiffany’s heritage by placing an emphasis on concepts such as innovative materiality, a strong sense of three-dimensionality, and the ability to spark wonder in onlookers. In Shanghai, all of these principles find their expression in the screen of glass diamonds. These are placed to give a randomly scattered effect, thinning out for greater visibility where needed, such as alongside the first-floor balcony that accompanies the store’s café.

Each of these glass diamonds is 21 centimetres wide and 13 centimetres tall, weighing 1.5 kilograms. They are suspended on thin steel cables, which are coated in a mirrored steel finish and placed in high tension between the top and bottom frames of the structure. Specially designed steel fixtures, designed to be as small and unobtrusive as possible, ensure the diamonds do not move or spin on their supports. Thanks to the design’s attention to detail, the façade only uses mechanical connections, allowing it to be completely dismantled and its parts reused or recycled in the future.

Like MVRDV’s previous design for Tiffany’s Singapore Airport store, the façade for the Shanghai store incorporates a characteristic element from the local surroundings – in this case, being inspired by the bright and colourful light displays of Shanghai’s skyline. Therefore, the project integrates low-energy, colour-changing LED lighting into both the top and bottom of the façade. The façade can thus be lit in any colour, including the trademark Tiffany Blue ®, with each colour being brought to life by the refractive effects of the glass diamonds.

Diamond-encrusted façade for Tiffany & Co. store in China – Building Information

Architect: MVRDV – https://mvrdv.com/

Project Name: Tiffany Façade Shanghai Taikoo-Li
Location: Shanghai, China
Year: 2022–2024
Client: Tiffany & Co.
Size and Programme: 533 m2 retail façade

Credits
Architect: MVRDV
Founding Partner in charge: Jacob van Rijs
Partner: Fokke Moerel
Design Team: Aser Giménez Ortega, Elien Deceuninck, Monica Di Salvo, Simone Costa,
Türker Naci Şaylan, Xiaoyi Qin, Natalia Lipczuk
Copyright: MVRDV Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries
Contractor: Permasteelisa Hong Kong

MVRDV

About MVRDV

Architecture practice MVRDV was set up in 1993 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries. Finding early success with projects such as the headquarters for the Dutch Public Broadcaster VPRO and WoZoCo housing for the elderly in Amsterdam, MVRDV developed into an internationally renowned firm. Now, the three founding partners lead a dynamic and optimistic team of over 300 alongside partners Frans de Witte, Fokke Moerel, Wenchian Shi, Jan Knikker, and Bertrand Schippan. With four satellite offices in Shanghai, Paris, Berlin, and New York, MVRDV engages globally in providing solutions to contemporary architectural and urban issues.

MVRDV operates via a research-based and highly collaborative design method, engaging experts from all fields, clients, and stakeholders in their rigorous technical and creative investigation. This results in exemplary and outspoken buildings, urban plans, studies, and objects that enable our cities and landscapes to develop towards a better future. MVRDV works with BIM and has official in-house BREEAM and LEED assessors. Together with Delft University of Technology, MVRDV runs The Why Factory, an independent think tank and research institute providing an agenda for architecture and urbanism by envisioning the city of the future.

Renders © Wen Studio

MVRDV Architects

diamond-encrusted façade for Tiffany & Co. store in Shanghai, China images / information received 050724 from MVRDV Architects, The Netherlands

Location: Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, eastern Asia

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