Emporio Armani
Massimiliano Fuksas

Photo: Ramon Prat

The Emporio Armani project in Hong Kong is born with the insight that global culture is an experimental territory of many identities. It is the encounter of diverse modes of sensing the world.

Architecture and fashion are aspects of our reality that originate from the same universal culture.

Architecture appears to be permanent whereas fashion is ephemeral, but the acceleration of our society puts these values in competition.

The Emporio Armani in Hong Kong refuses any form of traditional architectural formalism: it is attentive on the ãemptyä space rather than formation. The real inspiration is not the decoration, but the fluxes inside the shop.
The invisible traces of people moving through space are the only possible reference.  

Photo: Ramon Prat

The twin curved glass incised with an abstract pattern stabilizes three spaces: one internal, one external and one interspatial. The lighting apparatus disappears, the geometry of the light source is lost; the glass wave wall becomes the light source itself.

Photo: Ramon Prat

The staircase is composed of two sheets of stainless steel on which the panels of glass are mounted. The handrail is stainless steel covered by a tube in transparent plexiglass.

Photo: Ramon Prat

The pavement and the ceiling reflect back images infinitely, neutralizing and immaterializing themselves. The space at this point becomes a fluid ground on which one passes through the Emporio Shop, the Cafè, the bookshop, the flower shop and cosmetics shop.

The walls push their limits and become illuminating objects. The furniture, designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, are made of sheets of stainless steel clad in soft and translucent materials. The structure disappears under waves of light.

Photo: Ramon Prat

From Emporio Armani, one passes directly to the restaurant, dramatically characterized by a red ribbon in fibreglass that emerges out of the floor and becomes a bar table, than rises and drops to create a dining space, intersects to house a DJ stand, rises to create a bar space, than turns to create a spiral tunnel that defines the main entrance.

Photo: Ramon Prat

Photo: Ramon Prat

The translucent walls of the restaurant could vary in color and intensity (I Guzzini) to create different atmospheres throughout the day.

Photo: Ramon Prat

The Facade on Charter Road interprets the images and the mutation of the city of Hong Kong with a continuously changing illuminated graphic sign.

Drawing courtesy Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas