The Shibuya PARCO store is a redevelopment of PARCO’s flagship department store, which launched in 1973 in Shibuya, one of Tokyo’s most vibrant and popular districts. The facility has a total built area of 64,000 square meters, with 42,000 square meters of retail spaces in 11 storeys consisting of 193 shops. The store opened officially on November 22nd, 2019.
This opening marks a significant occasion for Benoy, since Shibuya PARCO is our first project completed in Japan. After winning the design competition in 2015, Benoy was appointed to deliver the design concept for the whole retail environment. The scope also includes basic design for the feature outdoor spiral circulation.
With the store’s vertical settings, we collaborated on creating an alternative outdoor journey, enriching the customer experience and arousing engagement with the picturesque surrounding landscape, seen via a roof terrace overviewing both Fuji Mountain and Yoyogi Park.
This outdoor journey takes a spiraling form, like peeling an apple, starting from the roof and cascading down to different retail zones, thus providing a comprehensive shopping experience to customers. It also offers respective entry points to each level of retail, maximizing the customer flow back to the indoor environment, and as a whole providing a seamless connection between indoor and outdoor spaces.
There are retail shops as well as restaurants spilling out to the outdoor terraces, so the whole customer journey is animated and filled with activities.
With its intriguing spatial arrangement between indoor and outdoor, Shibuya PARCO offers a unique sense of place to the city.
PARCO envisage the design as representing a “3D town,” based on the perception of Shibuya as a “town of hills and roads.” Furthermore, PARCO have ensured the building is constructed using ESG principles, including ecological friendliness through CO2 reduction and revitalization of the surrounding area.
