BALI BARRET, STORE 02 - RED MILITARY TENT

Since 2003, Mrs. Bali Barret is part of the French Haute Couture House Hermès, where she took over as the new creative director for women's universe of silk and textile.

Prior to that, she created her own brand: Bali Barret.

The ‘Red Military Tent’ accommodates her second store, hidden behind a large tarpaulin.

In addition to being unusual, this project appeals for its manufacturing process – a breakthrough from the traditional store design codes. To comply with the function it houses, this architecture uses an appropriate design language – that of textile creation. In the same way as a seamstress would reconstruct a piece of clothing from a pattern, the contractors were provided with a facade pattern of the tent.

The waxed canvas is tensioned with natural leather straps and spanned on a metal framework. The base is weighted down with sandbags. To enter the tent, you walk through a timber entrance lobby and then discover an interior space with ecru walls.

Both the opacity of the facade and the lack of information of this unexpected formalism are a way to attract the curious of Downtown Tokyo. It is the purpose that the project was intended to serve – for six years, the store had become a new urban landmark.