314
Current Issue

Jan/Feb 2026

#314
Jan/Feb 2026

The AZURE Houses issue returns in 2026 with stunning, innovative residential projects from Canada and around the world. Plus, we take a look at that seeming relic of the past: the mall.

Patkau Architects for Comme des Garcons 02

 

Called Cocoons, and resembling cryogenic chambers, the stainless-steel enclosures are designed for double duty: they can be used for merchandise displays or as change rooms. 

Each structure is constructed from three pattern-cut steel sheets, with flanges along the seams folded and reinforced with drilled steel plates. This volume is then welded to a steel base frame that houses a lit acrylic floor. For use as a change room, a steel-framed door veiled with a sheer white fabric is fitted to the Cocoon.

Firmly set in the luxury shopping epicentre – the site of CdG’s new space is the second of its kind (the original Dover Street Market is in London’s swanky Mayfair neighbourhood). In addition to its own line, the department store-cum-museum carries such brands as Maison Martin Margiela and A Bathing Ape. The six-floor funhouse will also display works by artists, architects and designers.

Patkau Architects for Comme des Garcons

For a new retail space inside the Dover Street Market Ginza in Tokyo, Rei Kawakubo – the creative force behind Comme des Garcons – asked the Vancouver firm to reinterpret its Winnipeg Skating Shelters, a temporary installation on the Red and the Assiniboine Rivers.

leaderboard-3