Before you, you see the new 24- story flagship store for design firm Louis Vuitton, designed by Japanese architect Jun Aoki. To be called L’Avenue Shanghai, the new store will be the largest LV flagship in the world.
The form is subtly organic. A tower form rises from a sweeping skirt of a podium. It has been suggested that this building is in some way bringing femininity to the tower form. It is difficult to see how this could be so. The fashion industry is itself quite a masculine field. Fashion may seem a feminine interest, but it is filled with men designing clothes for women to be seen in. There is no judgement here- do not misunderstand me- but the fact that a phallic tower holds inside it one of the headlines of the fashion industry, does not feminize it.
The building has already achieved LEED Gold accreditation. Covered in a reinforced concrete skin, itself clad with glazed ceramic tiles, the facade systems are designed to both lend thermal resistance as well as create a reflective heat shield using the tiles. The store will re-use rainwater for irrigation of greenscaping which occurs inside and out.
Project info :
Project Name:Shanghai Changning Place
Locarion : No. 99 Xianxia Road, Changning District, Shanghai
Design Firm: Jun Aoki & ASSOCIATES
Client: Shangheng Investment Co., Ltd.
Lead Designers and Team: Marcel Peter, Toru Murayama, Mirei Uchibe, Yoshitaka Miyauchi
Local Architect: Leigh & Orange
Construction Contractor: Shanghai Sega Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd.
Façade Contractor: JOSEF GARTNER Façade (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
Interior Contractor: China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Eighth Division
Design Period: March 2007 – September 2011
Completion Date: June 2013
Building Footprint: 9,280 m²
Site Area: 18,770 m²
Total Floor Area: 143,698 m²
Photographer: Shu He
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Courtesy of Jun Aoki
Matt Davis is a Virginia Tech graduate and one of the founding editors behind Arch2O. Launching the platform in mid‑2012 alongside fellow Hokies, he helped shape its identity as an international hub for design innovation and critical dialogue . With a foundation in architectural education and a passion for uncovering unconventional design approaches, Matt has contributed significantly—both editorially and strategically—to Arch2O’s growth, ensuring that emerging architects, academics, and creatives have a space to question, explore, and elevate the built environment.