Longchamps - NY by Thomas Heatherwick

Longchamps - NY by Thomas Heatherwick Why? In his best-selling book, Purple Cow, Seth Godin writes about an elevator company that has transformed its business by being a Purple Cow. The essence of the Purple Cow, Godin reasons, is that it would be remarkable. Something remarkable is worth paying attention to, talking about and posting pictures on the Internet. Longchamp, the French manufacturer of luxury handbags and leather goods, wanted something remarkable for La Maison Unique, its new boutique in New York City's fashionable SoHo district. They entrusted this challenge to Heatherwick Studio, run by Thomas Heatherwick, a three-dimensional design studio recognized for works in architecture, sculpture, urban infrastructure and product design. The building, constructed in 1936, is an unusual choice for a flagship store. It has space for a large shop, but most of it is on the second floor. Despite this modest street presence, the site presented opportunities to play on consumers’ expectations with an artistic, even theatrical solution to enticing people up to the main retail level on the second floor. Heatherwick Studio completely refurbished the building, making major structural reinforcements. A third storey was added with offices, a showroom and a roof garden. A large shaft was punched through the entire building to the entrance and topped by a glass skylight. This new core lets light through the building to draw people upwards. But instead of a conventional staircase or escalator, the Heatherwick team connected the two levels with a remarkable stair landscape that features ribbon-like forms and balustrades made from Quinn PETG sheet using Eastman's Spectar™ copolyester resin. The effect is a magical carpet ride that beckons you to climb aboard. How? The balustrade panels for Longchamp stair landscape are a work of art themselves. "Heatherwick wanted to make it easy for people to look at the whole landscape," says Olivier. "The panels are designed so people can lean over." Using Quinn PETG sheet based on Spectar™ copolyester resin and supplied by Silwood Plastics, Talbot Designs of London, England, created the panels, taking advantage of the material's inherent versatility to achieve the desired "slumped glass" effect. "Heatherwick wanted it to stretch of its own accord," says Charles Woolff, director of Talbot Designs. "PETG has the ability to sag, distort and stretch like pastry and that's exactly what he wanted. Even so, Charles and his son, Richard, managing director at Talbot Designs, had to figure out how to get the precise amount of stretch. They calculated to the nearest second the time it took of stretch. They calculated to the nearest second the time it took for the panels to begin stretching in an air circulation oven and, then, they gently coaxed them to get just the right shape. "It was a small window – 20-to-30 seconds," says Richard. "Some leaned this way, some leaned that," Charles adds. "What we did was capture the stretch at the right time." Every one of the panels is different but that difference is used so that "you never see the same reflection of the staircase," notes Olivier. The panels are four feet high, five or six feet wide and slightly more than three-eighths of an inch or 10 millimeters thick. To ensure that the bottom of the panels conform perfectly to the steps, Talbot Designs used drawings of the staircase to build their own set of steps. With nearly 40 years in the plastics fabrications business, Charles was certain the balustrade panels could be made to match the artistry of the rest of the stair landscape. "I know the material," Charles says of PETG. "We’ve been using it a long time. So it was that appreciation of the material that gave us the idea that it would work on this project." Wow? The Longchamp stair landscape has won several design awards but the biggest compliment of all is when customers go to the second floor retail area and make a purchase. In order to see the full website, photos and text on this amazing project go to: http://www.innovationlab.eastman.com/InnovationLab/materials/ezone/envision.htm

For more information on Longchamps - NY by Thomas Heatherwick talk to Talbot Designs Ltd