Selfridges, Birmingham
The brief with this scheme was not only to design a state of the art department store but also to create an architectural landmark for Birmingham so that the building itself would become a geniuine catalyst for urban regeneration.
The fluidity of shape recalls the fall of fabric or the soft lines of a body, rises from the ground and gently billows outwards before being drawn in at a kind of waistline. It then curves out again and over to form the roof, in one continuous movement. The skin is made up of thousands of aluminium discs, creating a fine, lustrous grain like the scales of a snake or the sequins of a Paco Rabanne dress. In sunlight it shimmers, relecting minute changes in weather conditions and taking on the colours, light and shapes of people and things passing by.