The normally blank façades of a traditional department store are reinterpreted as glamorous glass and light lanterns in this shimmering modern retail center. The intricate variety of façade surface treatments reinforce the fit of this new kind of department store into the contemporary city.

Vioro is a reinvention of the modern department store, occupying a corner site at the busiest intersection in Fukuoka’s high-end commercial high street. Two levels of retail below ground link to the city subway and subterranean shopping passages, while the six levels above ground provide venues for the clients of a hip, young shopping culture in the Tenjin area.

The two corner façades of articulated interlocking boxes turn the modern department store inside out. The normally blank façades of a traditional department store are reinterpreted as glamorous glass and light lanterns. Large-scale glass boxes and solid folded planes turn the corner and overlap, breaking down the traditional weight of the building corner structure.

Horizontal surfaces are further broken down in the use of display light-boxes on every level, which float within the larger structural elements and draw interest from pedestrians well below. The variety of façade surface treatments, such as intricate steel meshes, patterned stones, and illuminated glazed surfaces reinforce the fit of this new kind of department store into the contemporary city, and turn the entire building into a billboard and window-shopping structure, communicating and relating directly to the consumer needs of the young city dweller.