Best Workspace: Vakko Fashion and Power Media Centre, Istanbul, by REX
Architecture
Built in just a few months, wallpaper.com follows how, using a half-built hotel structure, as well as the cleverly adapted plans of a cancelled US commission, the new Istanbul HQ of Turkish fashion house Vakko takes shape. The centre was designed by New York practice REX, led by Joshua Prince-Ramus, who sought to merge the disparate functions of Vakko’s fashion business together with Vakko CEO Cem Hakko’s ventures into youth media, collectively known as The Power Group. The solution is almost two buildings in one. REX placed TV and radio studios for Power in the original underground car park, beneath a stack of angled steel boxes housing meeting rooms, showrooms and an auditorium. This forms a centrepiece in the core of the building’s outer concrete ring, which itself contains offices. Meanwhile, the ground floor, hidden beneath the entrance drive, houses a space where the Vakko fashionistas can eat and socialise with the Power media crowd. Constructing a vast project like this to such a wildly unrealistic time frame would normally be unthinkable, if not impossible. Yet, inside the cool, calm offices and stacked, mirror-clad rooms that form its prismatic heart, Vakko has an HQ that really cuts it. www.rex-ny.com
via Best Workspace: Vakko Fashion And Power Media Centre, Istanbul, By REX | Architecture | Wallpaper* Magazine.