paul coudamy: fantastique canopée for comme des garçons (wood instalaton)

'fantastique canopée' by paul coudamy, 2012
all images courtesy billy poh + paul coudamy


paris-based architect paul coudamy has completed the installation of his new sculptural fixture, 'fantastique canopée' for comme des garçons in their
new department store dover street market (DSM) located in tokyo, japan. the piece is comprised of 9,715 planks of wood which seem to grow from
the ground of the shop's interior into two massive sheltering structures which span a portion of the space's ceiling. the fashion brand asked
coudamy designs to imagine a modernist version of a wooden cave in order to develop the sculpture. the neutral design of the store's interior
enables an easy contrast between the vast whiteness of the shop's walls and ceiling with the voluminous and textured artwork installed
in the center of the space, beneath which new clothing displays rest.

paul coudamy tells designboom, 'the watery energy of this wooden sea, composed of thousands of wooden planks fit together to form a harmonious
and imperfect scaly skin, whose jagged curves spread and grow on the ceiling in an uncertain explosion. the 9,715 planks, laid one by one from the
two vertical pillars' basis were fixed one by one randomly. without knowing where it would go and eventually end, the sculpture forms a structure
which becomes wider to spread horizontally and overhang space in every direction. united, the two entities are striving to meet, through the glass
panels of the escalator in the middle of the building, to form a one and only body. smooth circulation are formed around the two spaces, the wooden masses
break the corners' limits whose implantation is unknown. the pieces of wood create irregular curves which are modified depending on the point of view,
looking thin here and massive there. as they were built randomly on the spot, wonderful canopy's vague and free curves make the sculpture look like
an object verging on chaos and plant world in accordance with the brand comme des garçons' spirit'.



bright racks displaying hanging clothes rest beneath one of the canopy structures






the wooden sculpture has been designed in such a way that the lighting for the shop's interior peaks through the plank-formed leaves across the ceiling



an alternate perspective of the shop's interior picturing the second of the two plank-built trees




detailed perspective of its wooden plank trunk


construction of 'fantastiqe canopeé'


alternate view of construction


design plans for the installation

project info:
'in-situ wood sculpture'
client: comme des garçons / DSMG
place: ginza / tokyo
date: 14/02/2012
surface: 125m²