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Architects: Emmanuel Picault, Ludwig Godefroy
- Year: 2012
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Photographs:Ramiro Chaves
Text description provided by the architects. The Franco-Mexican architect Emmanuel Picault (chic by accident) together with the French architect Ludwig Godefroy just completed a new showroom for American Apparel in Mexico city, Roma district.
Respecting the old layout of the house to generate the new esthetic of the project, analyzing the capacity of the old structure to define something new, to redefine different spaces, is the way we started with this project.
Ripping down the inner walls to reuse only the rough structural concrete beams and columns of it, letting visible the reinforcements of the concrete we were cutting, exposing the electrical system, using rough plaster as finishing, as well as insulation cork, in a strong contrast with luxurious materials like leather and copper leaves, generated a discontinuous dialogue of materials which seems to have nothing in common at first.
Therefore, producing this interesting mix of classical and rough materials, together with modern elements like the floating shelves and the loophole windows, we created a singular sensation of an elegant timeless unfinished project, made out of resplendent materials.