Dries Van Noten – Korea

I worked as an in-house architect for Dries Van Noten for fourteen years, designing his boutiques, corners and shop-in-shops around the world. Such a design always started from a thorough analysis of the shopping centre where the new store would open:

On which floor is the store located?
Which brands do our neighbours sell?
How can I make the store stand out?

I combined striking colours and materials with more subtle touches and angles.

From 2019 onwards, I decided to increasingly concentrate on independent boutiques in large cities because most shopping centres impose a lot of restrictions. I received clear guidelines from the shopping centre about their own signature style, setting out which dimensions and materials to use. I often tried to strike a balance between what was allowed and what was off-limits. Where possible, I tried to incorporate as many of my own ideas and elements of the shopping centre’s signature style into my design, taking the restrictions into account. Once the design was completed, I tried to convince the client (the shopping centre) to execute the design as I had intended.