#ASLOVES
Jade Facade


This month #asloves the facade of Bulgari Shanghai conceived by MVRDV Architects, using recycled beer and champagne bottles, creating a new Jade-like material that frames the store.

 

For this, MVRDV’s third Bulgari store in their ongoing collaboration, they continue exploring the possibilities of sustainable recycled materials in luxury. Taking Art Deco and China’s most precious stone, Jade, as their inspirations, they imagined a stunning facade panelled in a custom sintered green translucent recycled glass material:

 

Our collaboration with Bulgari has yielded some fascinating material experiments. It’s a passion we share with them, albeit in different design disciplines. The Shanghai store encapsulates the value of these experiments: given the right treatment and detailing, leftover champagne and beer bottles, which would otherwise be thrown away, become a jewel for the city.” MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs

Here at American Supply we love the visual transformation, and MVRDV’s sensitive use of recycled sustainable materials.

 

The project demonstrates the potential of sustainable recycled materials, even in luxury contexts, and takes one step towards MVRDV and Bulgari’s goal of store designs that are built using 100% circular economy materials. Meanwhile the backlight is engineered to minimise the façade’s energy footprint, using less than half the energy of a typical comparable installation.MVRDV website

Photos: all images © Bulgari, © Xia Zhi

All images are taken from the MVRDV website