Barbarito Bancel Architectes has won silver at the 2016 American Architecture Prize for the new Dior Flagship.
In 2014, Dior hired Barbarito Bancel to design its new corner building in Miami Design District. The first step of the architects was to define and to gather the values that constitute Dior's identity: elegance, tradition, creativity, nobility, innovation, know-how, and wonder. Pondering on these values along with the continuous exchange with Dior's president, Sidney Toledano and his team, led to a refined design of sculpted volumes evoking a voluptuous fabric.
The façade imposes itself by its elegant design, large curves in white concrete create clear pleated forms between which the boutique's spaces slide in. The nobility of the smooth and sleek surfaces is given by a contemporary material made of extremely dense concrete with marble powder.
The interior spaces participate in the movement of the facade. The showcases appear between the pleats and the planes retreat and open more firmly to shelter the passersby and invite them to enter. Rich interior spaces succeed each other, lit by a grazing natural light created by the more generous movements of the volumes of the facade. At the last floor, the curves space out more to give access to a terrace garden, facing south.
Photography: Alessandra Chemollo