"My First Deck Hardly Included Any Architecture" Samir Bantal on Creating Spaces for Stone Island
Hypebeast sat down with AMO Director and architect Samir Bantal to discuss his design process for Stone Island’s new Germany store, and what it means to the city of Munich.
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Much like Milan, Paris, or London, the city of Munich is rife with best-in-class retail stores. And while UK residents and tourists may wander down Bond Street for their fix of Prada, Balenciaga, and Gucci, those in Munich head to Perusastraße, which is now the home to Munich’s all-new and state-of-the-art Stone Island flagship store.
The three-floor, 360m2 store follows the new global retail concept designed in partnership with AMO, the think-tank arm of renowned Dutch architecture firm, OMA – and uses materials and processes that reflect Stone Island’s legacy of development.
“I think creation always starts with narrative. Retail is a hard place to create one because it changes over time and it almost needs a constant update,” AMO’s Samir Bantal, told Hypebeast.
“The one thing that often stays the same is the core values – and you can call it narrative – of the brand that you’re representing. If there’s a narrative, it would feel as if anything is possible. Here, in the Stone Island store in Munich, it feels as if everything falls in its place.”
Stone Island
Stone Island
Stone Island
Stone Island
Based in Munich’s Old Town, the exterior of the building is cut from local granite, a design detail that pays homage to the city itself. These materials are used to “highlight specific things,” such as Munich’s industrial industry, one that was built on the foundations of a diverse range of activities, from creating small crafts to high-tech assembly.
Large windows offer a view of the interiors, including a visual display module named the Chandelier, which is suspended from the ceiling and has the capabilities of being tilted, rotated, and even lowered to become an illuminated display table.
For Bantal, the design process is based primarily on the vistor experience, and infusing some of the city’s DNA into the space itself. “We try to understand the city we’re working in, and what the people who visit us would like to see,” Bantal told Hypebeast. “You’re almost dreaming about the step-by-step process of them wandering around the store.” By taking this approach, he says, no two stores will end up the same – “that process makes it very exciting and unique whenever you begin working on a new store in Milan, Paris, New York, Tokyo, or Manchester.”
Stone Island
Stone Island
Stone Island
Stone Island
Stone Island
The back of the store’s ground floor, which features a red resin wall, is home to a connected series of video displays. Each outlines Stone Island’s journey from original brainstorm ideas to final products – a feature that is amplified through the store’s hidden pull-out walls that articulate the process in written form.
A spiral staircase then leads to the store’s basement, which functions as a new community hub complete with tiered seating for lectures and events where the stories of Stone Island’s history and contemporary influence will be told.
“The store has created a different level of engagement and since the Munich flagship is such an important store both in Germany and Europe, we felt like we had to add this level of storytelling,” Bantal continues. It gives people who don’t know the brand a sense of curiosity that will make them walk inside. There’s also a range of people who know the brand very well and are excited to see what else is going on.”
“The stores won’t be a recipe for all, it’ll be a process of testing new ideas until we feel like we have perfected the aesthetic.”
Thanks to a modern aesthetic, the story of Stone Island’s current success – spearheaded by recent collaborations with New Balance and Supreme – feels present all around the space. But Bantal’s scheme also allows you to take a trip down memory lane to learn from its past, before looking to its future.
Now, with Stone Island’s new store open for the world to see and experience, Bantal is humbled by its reception thus far and iterates that its new home in Munich is the perfect fit for the city – one that is a cultural meeting point for long-haul fans of the label and entry-point discoverers, amidst the post-COVID worries that suggested physical retail was a thing of the past.
“It was a big question,” Bantal said. “How will people respond to retail and what is the future of retail? With the Stone Island team, we tried to develop an approach that would apply to two types of customers; the ones that know Stone Island very well and the ones that need to be introduced to the brand.”
So, along with creating one of the most immersive and technologically-advanced stores in Europe, what else is in the future for AMO and Samir Bantal? “We’re also working on a museum in Amsterdam, there’s a project that I’m finishing in Seoul, Korea, and there are also other fashion-related projects in the US. That’s the magic, I think, behind AMO, it allows you to enter different spaces, more than a typical architecture business. The future is exciting!”
Read on for an edited transcript.
Hypebeast: How do you feel now the new Stone Island store in Munich is officially open?
Samir Bantal: Very happy. We started working with Stone Island in 2021, when COVID had become more or less manageable. Together with the Stone Island team, we tried to develop an approach that would apply to two types of customers; the ones that know Stone Island very well and the ones that need to be introduced to the brand.
So we tried to find a language that would speak to both of these people and everything in between. Now, I’m happy that it’s here and also happy to speak to a client that has now become a partner. Stone Island wants to experiment with its clothing and fabrics and also wants to experiment with the stores.
The stores won’t be a recipe for all, it’ll be a process of testing new ideas until we feel like we have perfected the aesthetic. So, every time that we discover something new, we will use it in the next store or idea. So, overall, I’m very happy.
Stone Island
Stone Island
Stone Island
Stone Island
How important is narrative to you when creating a new space?
Other architects and people that have visited the store have said that they appreciate the design of the store, the use of materials, and the testing. That’s what they feel the brand stands for. So, it’s not literally copying what the brand does in terms of fabric, it’s the ethos and the approach to materials. If you have that locked in, then whatever you do in terms of shapes and rooting will always work. So, I think the narrative is the starting point in any creation.
What would you want people to understand about the architecture of this store creation that they might not just from viewing it?
It goes back to the second question: the narrative. There’s such an incredible layering of narrative, ideas, and thinking that you’re displaying with architecture. It’s the materials, the rooting, how you highlight specific things, and how you respect each item correctly. Beyond the technical point, there’s storytelling that is inside of architecture. The challenge is how do you bring all of these together in one space that also still fits the city it is situated in – that’s another element, another layer that is involved in the storytelling.
Stone Island
Stone Island
Stone Island
Stone Island
What does a day in the life look like for you working in collaboration with Stone Island?
I knew Stone Island from the start, and I knew the brand is very different from others in the sense that they don’t just focus on the fabrics it uses. But, I was totally blown away when I walked into a dying factory and I only saw white pieces; white jumpers, T-shirts, and trousers. I thought, “Is this a specific line they’re working on?” but the team informed me that this is how every piece starts. What follows, is a very precise process of coloring, according to recipes.
So, a typical day would be regular updates, where we discuss the progress of a specific store somewhere around the world, but at the same time, we keep pushing ourselves by testing new materials, and how we make things more efficient in the future. So, rather than making a sketch and presenting it, this is a real design process – one that you want.
We often challenge our design process but at the same time, we think and find the right solutions. So, the core value of the brand is more product design, rather than just a fashion label.
“Instead of just looking at the architecture, we look at what culture and society say and we look for a way in which we can create a language for a brand to speak.”
AMO often works at the intersection of fashion and architecture. Do you believe this is why your relationship with Stone Island seems so seamless?
My first deck to Stone Island hardly included any sort of architectural proposal. It outlined the things that we believe Stone Island stands for along with the values that we recognized that we weren’t sure were explicit or something that we didn’t know Stone Island was looking for specifically. For example, we’re living in a time when gender as a construct is challenged. We have discussions about gender fluidity, and brands – especially fashion labels – that had a very clear binary vision, suddenly have to rethink that.
With Stone Island, it’s menswear, but it’s very much masculine wear. So, rather than gender-related qualities, people look for much more value-related aspects, which makes it open for any gender. That is what makes the brand beautiful, it’s not just designed for women, it’s designed for everyone. With this, you see that as Stone Island sticks to its own principles, it is much more open to the development of society.
This works the same with AMO, instead of just looking at the architecture, we look at what culture and society say and we look for a way in which we can create a language for a brand to speak, which we think is just as important as the overall architectural design.
Stone Island
Stone Island
What’s next for you in the future?
We’re continuing with more stores for Stone Island. I’m also working on a bunch of projects, ranging from a research approach, envisioning what the energy transition for the Netherlands may mean: what does the country look like when we shift from fossil fuel to electric? We’re also working on a museum in Amsterdam, there’s a project that I’m finishing in Seoul, Korea, and there are also other fashion-related projects in the US. That’s the magic, I think, behind AMO, it allows you to enter different spaces, more than a typical architecture business. The future is exciting!
