“SoHo is perhaps the most dramatic territory to document the changes in the city,” Koolhaas says. “Ten years ago, this entire domain was a cultural domain or an industrial domain, and now virtually every ground floor is commercial space.” (Post Prada) Koolhaas has finalized this commercial wave by $40 million Prada store which opened 2001 in Soho.
“At the entrance of the shop, Koolhaas designed an amphitheater-style space for public events. The space includes video display equipment that folds out of a ramp made of zebrawood that dips into the basement section of the store’s space.
Especially the changing room design is outstanding. The concept was to eliminate the “hostile environment” in typical changing rooms. To that end, the OMA designed a glass door using SGG technology. Liquid crystal film inside the glass becomes opaque when an electric current through the film is cut off. Three lighting options are available inside the rooms. Koolhaas also wanted video monitors next to mirrors to show a person’s front and rear view at once. The software for Prada SoHo senses the rate of motion in an image. As the rate of motion increases, so does the delay of the video signal. This means that with little motion within the image, the display is near realtime. But if a person turns for the camera, the monitor does not show the spin until the person has come around to their original position, where they can watch it.
In the project for Prada SoHo, Koolhaas calls the salespersons “Prada Army”. The first wallpaper photo was taken by Andreas Gursky, and the shoes corner is called Shoe Theater. To get the aura of the world, he puts media stage, which is 14 video projections, and broadcast “peep show”, the world news and some images of the fashion show. In his diagram, service and the aura is a different vector. Atlas, big stores and catalogues are on the side of aura, and the database is on the side of service. (Project for Prada)
It is not practical at all, but Koolhaas’ design made the store a tourist stop, as a part of the mission. Hipness has a very high return on investment. Prada has reaped untold amounts of essentially free advertising from the SoHo store.
Commerce button at the cashier of Prada
His position is such as capitalistic cynicism. Sometimes in the lecture, he uses the logos says YES, which is made by yen, dollar, and euro. (Asada) Also this is called Commerce Button, and used at the cashier of Prada. If you say no to the world economy as an idealist, it does not change the reality of the world. Rather, pretend to assert YES, and jump into the reality of the world will be the beginning of the game. The threat which is sustained by the power of capitalism itself shows the overwhelming destruction against the avant-gardes and traditionalist in the former generations. Also this threat influences the new generation who tries to be radical at the place where the radical negativism seems denied.
The dynamism of the city as a world is the reality. He thinks the architects who do not concern this dynamism and talk about the beauty of the architecture are just out fashioned idealists.”
SOS/SMS Cidade e Territórios Urbanos 