Robe de Chambre - 1981
Yasuo Kondo
"Space without anything". The metaphor used by fashion designer Rei Kawakubo to describe how she wanted the first Robe de Chambre showroom designed. Kawabubo commissioned architect Yasuo Kondo to design this showroom. Kondo used this opportunity to test his hypothesis for designing interiors. He broke this method of designing into three parts the first being: "Interior Design" is to create a completely different space within an existing space. The first step to design an inner space is to confirm its dual layer structure with the outer architectural structure and establish a method.
I put "aesthetic sense" out of the way. I assume an independent cubic structure within the architectural structure in order to understand the spatial structure, and repeat decomposing and composing the cubic structure by "line" and "surface." The basic principle of my method is to program the possibilities of the space that come out from the repeated composing and decomposing process."
The end result was a space within a space, that wasn't an interior space by definition. Kondo created the internal space from pillars. An architectural support he has seen used many times. The formation of these pillars within the existing space allowed him to create the presence of an interior space, without the closing off by windows or doors. It was his way to bring Kawakubo's vision of a "space without
Space within! Space without!
Insightful!