BIG's proposal shows the inside of the future Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées. image courtesy of Galeries Lafayette

Business of Fashion (BoF) unveiled the first visuals of BIG's new concept store for Galeries Lafayette in a historical Art Deco building on Champs-Élysées. The latest project news of Bjarke Ingels Group came from French department chain Galeries Lafayette and the French brand has selected BIG to design its new flagship shop on the Champs-Élysées. Champs-Élysées is the most crowded boulevard in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. This renovation project will be the first retail project of BIG, which will redefine and upgrade the concept of contemporary retail space in the 21st Century.

The future Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées. image courtesy of Galeries Lafayette

With 7,000 square metres of retail space, the new Galeries Lafayette store will be roughly one-tenth the size of its Boulevard Haussmann location, which generated about €2 billion ($2.3 billion) of sales in 2015. Houzé says it is too early to confirm the number of SKUs and employees according to BoF. 

“We are inheriting a big, beautiful building that has been there for a century. So we are mostly moving around within it and playing with elements that have already been established. And I think it is going to feel like a joyful and playful environment for people to shop,” Ingels says. The restoration of a concealed skylight will be treated in a modern way, not as a replication of the iconic Boulevard Haussmann cupola, he notes. “We’re taking that element and letting it bleed out across the store, so that the lighting behaves in a similar way as when the clouds move over Paris.”

“It has to be, somehow, the biggest concept store that has been built on the Champs-Élysées,” says Nicolas Houzé, chief executive officer of Galeries Lafayette.

The store is expected to open by the end of 2018. BIG saw off OMA and other two firms in the competition. “We wanted an architect who is able to understand the world like it is now, including sustainability, technology and customer experience,” says Eric Costa, president of Citynove, the property division of the Galeries Lafayette Group.  

> via BoF