Benetton façade in rue Neuve

The design for the facade in Rue Neuve, is the combination of two different interpretations. The first regards its physical location, its concrete surroundings; the second comes from a more general perception of the image of the company in different countries. In Rue Neuve, the two uninterrupted rows of buildings create the effect of a compressed space, where our distant foreshortened perception gradually becomes a closer experience, tied to the visitors body size, the light, the materials. The building new skin features a series of hollow uprights, which, instead of jutting out from the facade, create a V-shaped groove. Strips in different heights create horizontal bands with staggered vertical joints. Each new horizontal strip protrudes slightly from the last, so that in section we see a complex profile, a kind of imperceptible lacework structures with a corrugated cardboard motif that throws shifting shadows onto the underlying façade by day and lights it up with a radiant glow by night.