Projects for Prada Part 1

by Patrizio Bertelli, Miuccia Prada

In his inimitable style, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas presents his designs for Prada Stores in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Beginning with the proposition that "indefinite expansion represents a crisis... it spells the end of the brand as a creative enterprise," Koolhaas suggests an "expansion can also be used for a permanent redefinition of the brand...the epicenter store becomes a device that renews the brand by counteracting and destabilizing any received notion of what Prada is, does, or will become." Koolhaas proceeds to consider general ideas of brand, expansion, tourism and workspace, before launching into the specifics of his designs for the three locations. The book concludes with the plans he developed for the use of in-store technology, expanding the usual definitions of architecture and design. This volume is chock full of photographs, drawings, graphs, charts, all of the visual information that Koolhaas has become known for through such books as S,M,L,XL and Mutations. In Projects for Prada Part 1 his working methods for this unique design job are presented in great depth.

Genres: Architecture, Art, Nonfiction, Design

600 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straight up, I wanted to love Projects for Prada Part 1 more than I did. The concept is great and Patrizio Bertelli clearly did the homework, but the book keeps stopping to explain itself, like it doesn't trust me to keep up. Chapter four, with the real-life case study, is the best part and honestly could've been the whole book. The rest feels stretched to hit a page count. Worth it for the ideas, just skim the recaps.