While celebrating its 40th anniversary, the popular Italian sportswear brand Stone Island has partnered with OMA/AMO, an international collective studio led by prestigious personalities including Rem Koolhaas, and that counted among its clients Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University, and the Hermitage.

Aim of their newly opened store in Chicago is to revolutionize the brand’s stores’ ID to create new points of references, like, for instance, hubs for its communities, and spaces transcending for most different activities designed to experience the brand’s vast research and experimentation on design and product manipulation, but also to share experiences and interact with its fans.

The new store concept by OMA/AMO is designed in order to recreate sort of altar-like spaces, highlighting Stone Island’s devotion to technology and development. Niches for archival pieces and prototypes – results of years of experimentation in Stone Island’s lab in their Ravarino headquarters – showcase past thinking and future ambitions about product design. 

Beyond shop opening hours, the space will also host public presentations, salons, workshops, and private events, complementing the brand’s online presence with a series of highly involving events.

The art of manipulating materials of the brand is also often reflected in the store’s own design as, for instance, the stone-like palette of the spaces is formed with specially treated off-the-shelf materials – without using any actual concrete or stone. Shredded paper and resins are compressed under high pressure to become durable “concrete panels”. Cork - the central material to the Stone Island stores – is burnt, sandblasted and coated, turning dark and textured, while maintaining its sound-absorbing, humidity-controlling features. 

Corrugated steel panels, sand-coated, acquire a soft surface. A large digital chandelier, suspended from the ceiling, completes the store.

The new concept debuts within a new, 180-square meter retail space for Stone Island in Chicago - the brand’s first in the city - which opens on Thursday, October 20, 2022, and will soon be followed by other openings in Seoul, Munich and Stockholm.

“Stone Island and OMA/AMO share values of innovation, functionality, and passion. I am very happy to begin this important partnership, a new visual approach for our stores, to speak to our communities,” said Carlo Rivetti, creative director and president, Stone Island.

Research and innovation are at the core of Stone Island. The space, materiality, and program of the stores underpin the brand’s ethos, and reinforce a sense of belonging of its community of like-minded people,” added Samir Bantal, director, AMO.

The project was designed by Samir Bantal, with Natalie Konopelski, Giulio Margheri and Mateusz Kiercz.

OMA/AMO is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and managing partner-architect David Gianotten, who operate through offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. The studio has worked with various international clients and has also developed research projects and studies including Roadmap 2050, a plan for an Europe wide renewable energy grid, and The Energy Report, a global plan for renewable energy by 2050 with the WWF. 

STONE ISLAND CHICAGO
48 East Oak Street
60611 Chicago
Illinois
USA

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