Window shopping: the RIBA unveils its 2016 Regent Street project
![Back for a seventh year, the RIBA Regent Street Windows project has just launched its 2016 designs](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/aezhNobDwaYG43N7XFQ4x8-415-80.jpg)
Amid Regent Street’s hustle and bustle, there’s not always much time to stop and take in the lavishly designed displays – but the RIBA Regent Street Windows project is back for its seventh year to give us pause.
For the first time, the project ventures further than just Regent Street, but includes Liberty as well as RIBA’s own Portland Place headquarters, turning the area in and around the shopping street into a public architecture exhibition that will be seen by more than one million people.
Architecture Social Club took a theatrical approach to Liberty’s history and heritage by creating a series of scenes for five of the department store’s windows, casting its founder Arthur Lasenby Liberty as the protagonist in a heroic fashion tale. The installation is a deft and detailed narrative exploit complete with mechanical movement and juxtaposed prints.
Many of these elements are hand-made, which is also true for the Kiehl’s window, a Piercy & Company x Electrolight collaboration. Inspired by the skincare brand’s newest quinoa husk-based range, a manually casted porcelain object depicts this active ingredient in the left window. The right window shows us the manufacturing remnants of the creation process alongside bell jars and Erlenmeyer flasks filled with seeds – alluding to Kiehl’s apothecary philosophy, in which provenance and botanicals are central.
Bureau de Change’s Charles Tyrwhitt window, displaying shirt patterns made of different British timbers, and the fragile Molton Brown installation made of metal roses and packaging bottles also celebrated craftsmanship, which made the Armani Exchange window all the more surprising.
Simply placing a yellow-hued screen behind the mannequins, Matheson Whiteley paid homage to the Southern Californian artists of the Light and Space movement. Considerable in scale yet discreet, it illustrates the fluid and versatile nature of contemporary architecture.
For the first time, the project ventures further than just Regent Street, turning the area in and around the shopping street into a public architecture exhibition that will be seen by more than one million people. Pictured: 7 For All Mankind's window by KSR Architects
Matheson Whiteley worked on the store front for Armani Exchange
Kate Spade New York worked with Design Haus Liberty
Architecture Social Club took a theatrical approach to Liberty’s history and heritage
Kiko Milano's shopfront is the brainchild of Aleksa Studio
Architecture Social Club took a theatrical approach to Liberty’s history and heritage
The fragile Molton Brown installation made of metal roses and packaging bottles is by Knox Bhavan and Susie MacMurray
RIBA’s own headquarters on Portland Place are also part of the project, with a window by CAN and Nina Shen-Poblete
Meanwhile, Uniqlo is transformed thanks to Projects Office
INFORMATION
The RIBA Regent Street Windows 2016 will be on show until 25 September. For more information, visit the RIBA website
Photography courtesy RIBA
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Siska Lyssens has contributed to Wallpaper* since 2014, covering design in all its forms – from interiors to architecture and fashion. Now living in the U.S. after spending almost a decade in London, the Belgian journalist puts her creative branding cap on for various clients when not contributing to Wallpaper* or T Magazine.
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Tour the Natural History Museum’s new gardens, a Jurassic lark in London
The Natural History Museum in London has unveiled two new gardens, with resident dinosaurs, after a transformation led by architects Feilden Fowles
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Drama Republic moves into a colourful, handcrafted workspace in London
For the new creative HQ of production company Drama Republic, Emil Eve Architects remodels a warehouse into office space in London’s Holborn
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Hideaway House in London features timber panelling inspired by the New York hospitality scene
The elegantly refurbished Hideaway House by Studio McW in London features timber panelling inspired by Philip Johnson’s The Four Seasons Restaurant
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
An Uxbridge annexe by Bureau de Change is a design for effortless intergenerational living
Uxbridge Bower, a residential annexe in west London, is a contemporary addition offering both privacy and connection for the needs of a family
By Tianna Williams Published
-
2024 RIBA National Awards: browse the list of worthy winners
The 2024 RIBA National Awards have been announced, comprising 26 projects across the UK
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
‘Modern Buildings’ tours south-east London through a guide to post-war Blackheath and Greenwich
‘Modern Buildings: Blackheath and Greenwich’ is a detailed survey of a London borough’s rich trove of new modernist architecture
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Triangle House invites you to its inner world of colourful surprises
Triangle House by Artefact is a private home in Epsom, outside London, combining Caribbean style, colour and functionality
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Tour the refreshed Saint Andrew Holborn: an icon reveals its crisp new interior in London
DaeWha Kang reimagines Saint Andrew Holborn church through a sensitive architectural solution that blends tradition and modernity in London
By Ellie Stathaki Published