Giorgio Armani Center
Milan, Italy

The Armani Center was conceived as a multi­use complex, bringing together the various collections associated with the Giorgio Armani label. The 100,000 square­foot development­the largest retail project ever conceived in the city of Milan­occupies three levels of a 1947 landmarked building on Via Manzoni and Via Montenapoleone. In addition to the designer’s Emporio and Jeans lines, and a newly debuted Home Collection, the Center includes a Bookstore, Florist, Cafe, Nobu Restaurant, and Sony Music store. The commercial components of the Center surround an internal public street whose cruciform plan connects two major avenues and a piazza opening onto the city’s famous Grand Hotel. The form and fabric of this urban structure references Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele. The Center’s softly lit, translucent ceiling panels eddy around two, three­story skylit atriums, creating a coherent public environment that is animated by dynamic color walls; a flexible, tensile display system based on notions of lightness and suspension; and large­scale LED screens that provide supportive visual graphics for the Armani collections. These elements extend into and articulate the boutique areas, highlighting the distinctions among of the separate lines, while conceptually integrating the entire project.