MVRDV has reopened Crystal Houses in Amsterdam for a new tenant Hermès - the store's jewel-like façade has now become even more transparent for Hermès, a quintessential French luxury brand. Previously opened in 2016 for Chanel, the new store now will house the wares of luxury fashion house Hermès. 

The project’s façade was proposed as a way for Amsterdam to be home to distinctive, upmarket flagship stores without compromising the city’s historical character. 

Created for Amsterdam-based retail real-estate company Warenar, Crystal Houses was envisioned as a recreation of the traditional houses that make up PC Hooftstraat, with a dramatic twist. The usual brick façade is replaced by a glass replica, which dissolves into the traditional terracotta bricks on the upper level.

MVRDV closely worked with TU Delft, engineers ABT, and contractor Wessels Zeist on this project, and with materials provided by glass manufacturer Poesia and Delo Industrial Adhesives. The project created a dreamlike shopfront which combines the intricate complexity of traditional brick construction with the transparency of a retail façade.

"However, due to the spatial requirements of the temporary Chanel store, the impact of this transparency was previously diminished by a blind wall on the first floor, behind the upper portion of the glass façade," said MVRDV. 

In the new Hermès store, interior designers Bureau de Binnenstad removed this wall and opened the floor to the exterior, for the first time allowing visitors to see the dissolving effect where the glass bricks meet terracotta bricks close up – and finally taking full advantage of the transparency of the innovative design.

Led by Winy Maas, architect, urbanist and co-founder of MVRDV, he said: "Crystal Houses make space for a remarkable flagship store, respect the structure of the surroundings and bring a poetic innovation in glass construction."

"It enables global brands to combine the overwhelming desire of transparency with a couleur locale and modernity with heritage. It can thus be applied everywhere in our historic centres."

In MVRDV's previous statement, the project was described: The development of new construction methods unearthed additional possibilities for future building, such as the minimisation of waste materials. 

In essence, all of the glass components are completely recyclable. Waste materials from the project, such as imperfect bricks, could simply be (and were) melted down and re-moulded or entirely repurposed. Such is also true for the entire façade itself, once the building has reached the end of its life span, the whole facade can be melted down and given a new life.

All images © Daria Scagliola & Stijn Brakkee

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