The new Tadashi Shoji concept boutique at the Glendale Galleria in Southern California was designed in collaboration with Woodbury School of Architecture interior architecture students. After the opening event on June 28, 2016, Lara Hoad and Todd Erlandson reprised their roles as joint studio instructors at Woodbury University’s Interior Architecture Department, bringing a professional client project for their second year students.
Erlandson is the principal architect at March Studio and has worked on design projects for Tadashi Shoji since the design of his personal residence in Pasadena in 2002. Hoad is the design director at March Studio and also teaches branding, architecture and design with a lens on social change and sustainability at Woodbury and Otis.
What occurs when you play the role of teacher, facilitator, brand advocate, and architect at the same time?
The March Studio blog poses that question investigating how interior architecture can inform branded retail experience. Woodbury students who participated in the studio “Branding & Identity: The Retail Environment” taught by Hoad and Erlandson were tasked with developing branded installations for the first iteration of a Tadashi Shoji concept store at the Glendale Galleria.
“The students had an expectation that they were going to work with a brand, but not one with the creative caliber of Tadashi Shoji,” says Hoad in the article published on the March Studio website.
Here is another excerpt from the March Studio blog: “Working under the challenge set out by the syllabus, ‘How is the brand experienced through architectural elements from the micro to the macro,’ students worked in teams of three and translated their talisman objects into branded installations. These installations were designed with recycled and off-the-shelf materials to act as backdrops juxtaposed and contrasting with the fine detailing of the dresses. During this stage, the students met regularly with the contractor from and representatives from Tadashi Shoji to help the students develop their installations with an eye towards fabrication and brand authenticity.”
To read the full blog post, click here.