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Walking into the store I was not conscious of the air curtain. The inside seemed as though it was outside and vice versa.

The concept of having no store front takes one back to the days of traders on the silk route when selling your wares was done without store walls. It gives the buyer a non-consumer welcome as you decide if you want to tour further into the downstairs aluminum cavern, or hike up the twenty foot wide stairs to explore upstairs.

“Downstairs,” or the first floor is geared towards women’s accessories, shoes and handbags, partially displayed on inset pink fiberglass shelves.

The Epicenter stores are a far cry from Prada’s beginnings back in 1913 when Mario Prada was selling shoes, leather handbags and trunks, yet a reminder of the original stores in Milan are seen via the reproduction of early 20th Century display cases placed strategically in the area with classic-diagonal black and white marble flooring.

Creating the Wind Curtain a.k.a. Air Curtain

In order to have this seemingly nonchalant disappearing façade entrance to this high fashion boutique, extensive studies were undertaken. Arup’s Erin McConahey was involved in designing the entrance wind-curtain.

Scale models were created in coordination with Cermak Peterka Petersen Wind Engineers in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The wind engineers built a wind-tunnel model of the building with a replica of it’s setting along with miniature air systems representing the air curtain air flow and the internal pressurization of the building behind.

There is a temperature control thermostat that allows the store to remain completely open at the front without loss of internal temperature for a majority of operating hours throughout all seasons.

In the evening an aluminum-clad lift-wall rises from the basement to close the store, not unlike the concept of a Japanese Shoji screen. Only during extreme driving rain conditions would the lift-wall be put into use. This was important to know as Prada’s main shopping season is the month of December.

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