Acne Studios in Soul by Sophie Hicks

Every city can boast a street with astronomical rents, home to the most luxurious clothing brands. In the South Korean capital of Seoul, young wealthy Koreans head to the Cheongdam-dong district to fulfill their material desires, where the Swedish fashion brand Acne Studios recently opened its doors. The translucent flagship store of Acne Studios was designed by London architect Sophie Hicks, who has created hundreds of stores for well-known brands like Paul Smith, Chloé, and Yohji Yamamoto since the 1990s. The company ACNE (Ambition to Create Novel Expressions) was founded in 1996 in Stockholm, Sweden, as a designer of denim fashion featuring distinctive red stitching. It has now established itself as a luxury brand with branches in all major fashion capitals.
The plastic shell envelops a reinforced concrete skeleton with eight columns and visible imprints of wooden formwork. One of the columns is hidden in the technical support room, while a sculptural staircase wraps around another. The massive structure is intended to surprise visitors. The outer shell is separated from the internal load-bearing structure. Polycarbonate panels filter out street noise while allowing daylight to enter. The interior furnishings maintain a metallic Nordic coolness. The rooftop landscape is dominated by a heavily dimensioned air conditioning system.

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