Y2Koolhaas

For all his Junkspace anti-consumerist rhetoric, Rem Koolhaas is phenomenally good at making shopping look fun. The apotheosis of this skill can be found in his Prada flagship in SoHo, built from 2001 to 2002. Twenty-two years later, this store is every bit as forward-thinking as it was then. Notably bifurcated by a half-slope–half-stair stage-cum–seating arrangement, the top floor of the store is pretty conventional retail. But the bottom floor, accessed by a cylindrical elevator, is something else entirely: a mix of big-checkered carpet, a wall that looks more like a metallic hill (a very Hans Hollein moment), and a bank vault–like row of Prada-green aisles. Koolhaas understood how changes in mood, material, texture, and light enhances the look of clothing, itself fundamentally architectural. It is astonishing how effectively Koolhaas’s approach of expanding, submerging, shrinking, and compressing space creates an exploratory consumer journey that feels intimate and lavish at the same time. The pastel colors and shiny textures of Koolhaas’s Prada’s Y2K aesthetic we…