Ku'damm classic: the newly redesigned Jil Sander store in Berlin

Designed by Milan-based architect Andrea Tognon, the reworked Jil Sander store in Berlin is a delicately crafted interior that introduces a fresh concept for the company’s retail outlets. Tognon ensured his proposal highlighted the brand’s knack for purity, clean lines and simple geometries. 

‘Jil Sander for us is about research to the core, to the essence of ideas and forms,’ says Tognon. ‘In the project we questioned today’s ideal relationship between man and nature as an equilibrium of opposition, working around the juxtaposition of natural and artificial, geometric and organic, simple and not.’

Keeping the interior crisp and decluttered, the architect balanced rich, traditional materials, such as marble, stone and bronze, with synthetic products that point to the future, such as resin. It is furnished entirely with bespoke pieces that combine the timeless with the groundbreaking. 

‘I personally feel very close to Jil Sander,’ says Tognon. ‘It was like filling a room with everything that I like that somehow refers to the aesthetics and visual values of the brand. Memories, dreams, old postcards and movies, jewels from my mum, souvenirs and art pieces. Then we started to empty the room. What you see is what stayed in.’

There are cabinets in translucent resin; a sofa made of Eulithe, a polyurethane foam polymer; an imposing reception table with a marble top and base (made out of Azul and Cipollino marbles respectively) and a resin frame; and display tables in bronze that are inspired by the traditions of jewellery design. 

A sustainable approach was important to the team and there was a focus, for instance, on using resin made from recycled materials, such as marble chips. 

Crowning the whole space is Tognon’s ceiling light, composed of rows of brass rods, its spotlights strategically illuminating Sander’s coveted offerings.