Singapore

Meeting Tiffany & Co’s commitment to sustainability, MVRDV designs the façade of the company’s Changi Airport store, made up of recycled ocean plastics forming a unique cell-like pattern.

MVRDV has identified a series of distinctive design characteristics that would speak to Tiffany’s identity and history, ranging from touches of Tiffany Blue® to the use of innovative materials, inspired by Louis Comfort Tiffany’s contributions to the world of glass art during the late 19th century.

Also drawing from Tiffany’s design legacy are nods to flora and fauna throughout the store.

MVRDV’s designers looked to the local environment and Singapore’s coral reefs for a thematic anchor. Using the patterns seen in coral species as a guide, the team designed a screen to cover the store’s façade with an organic, cell-like pattern.

This screen foregrounds a layer of glass that was screen printed with a color gradient, transitioning from Tiffany’s signature robin’s-egg blue to a deep blue that references Singapore’s ocean setting.

The technology task force at MVRDV NEXT helped to refine the pattern of the coral-inspired screen, developing scripts to make sure the design could withstand various stresses.

3D printing experts Aectual developed a process to produce the 50-millimetre-thick screen using recycled plastic, including reclaimed and recycled fishing nets.

By making use of this unusual source of recycled plastic, the design not only draws inspiration from the oceans but also plays a part in protecting them.

A particularly challenging task was to meet the stringent regulations for fire safety required in an airport; here, BUROMILAN solved the issue by adding a chemical to the mixture that is also manufactured using seawater.

The gradient of light and dark blue returns in the 3D-printed portion of the design, in multiple ways: around the store’s entrances, the screen is light blue at the front and dark blue at the back; this gradient is reversed in the very corners of the façade, with a gradual transition in between – a gradient in all three dimensions.

Project: Changi Airport Tiffany & Co. Store Façade
Architects: MVRDV
Lead Designer: Jacob van Rijs 
Design Partner in Charge: Fokke Moerel
Design Team: Fokke Moerel, Aser Gimenez Ortega, Elien Deceuninck, Simone Costa, Monica Di Salvo, Xiaoyi Qin, Natalia Lipczuk, Yayun Liu, and Jaka Korla
Contractor: Grandwork
Coral in Recycled Fishnet Material: Aectual B.V.
Lighting designer: Cooley Monato Studio
Engineering advisor: BUROMILAN – Milan Ingegneria S.p.A.
Photographs: Courtesy of Tiffany & Co.