Maison Hermès, Flagship store in Ginza, Japan.
Maison Hermès is a 15-story flagship building in Ginza with a distinctive glass block facade. The facade is made of thousands of individually designed glass elements that refract and reflect daylight differently depending on the time of day.
The building was designed in the late 1990s and marked a French luxury brand's expansion into Japan. Its earthquake-resistant structural system was inspired by traditional Japanese construction techniques developed for stability in seismic regions.
The building is known in Japanese as Ginza Maison Hermès. Its recessed courtyard splits the long facade in two and leads down to Ginza Station on the Tokyo Metro, so the store doubles as a passage through the block. The roof garden sits at the top of the structure.
The building connects directly to a subway station located two levels below ground through an escalator system. This makes it easy to reach from central Tokyo by public transportation.
Each glass block of the facade was individually designed, with the size determined by the natural surface tension of molten glass. This handcrafted detail makes the facade a hidden marvel of industrial precision and natural material science.
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