Rem Koolhaas and AMO create faux-fur covered geometric rooms for Prada menswear show 

Architect Rem Koolhaas and his research studio AMO have designed an abstract set made of geometric rooms covered in tactile materials for fashion house Prada's Autumn Winter 2021 menswear presentation.

To mark Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons' debut menswear collection as co-designers at the storied Italian house, Koolhaas and AMO devised four rooms in different shapes connected by square doorways clad in a variety of colourful, unexpected materials.

The space, which featured circular, rectangular and hexagonal rooms, was organised "to create the illusion of a never-ending route," architect Giulio Margheri, who led AMO's collaboration with Prada, told Dezeen.

"The creative process around the show is an open conversation between AMO and Prada. Ideas emerge during our kick-off meetings, almost spontaneously, out of a relentless pursuit to challenge the format of the show," Margheri expanded.

The set's "non-spaces" were characterised by walls and floors clad in resin, faux fur, marble and plaster.

"The textures add complexity to the space, while remaining an abstract background for the protagonist," Margheri said.

The spaces were not meant to reference any one environment in particular, but to be juxtaposed to channel dualities such as hard versus soft, warm versus cold, and interior versus exterior. 

"We tinkered with the idea of the passage of time, and the design evolved into an abstract sequence of spaces that reflect different intimate moments of the day and their distinctive qualities," AMO explained.

Red faux fur blanketed the walls of the first rectangular room while contrasting black glossy resin floors provided an isolated backdrop and reflected the collection's colour-blocked styles as models moved to the next space. 

With every new room, the space inverted the material arrangement of the room before it. The circular plan of the second space featured seamless white marble walls and a sky blue faux fur floor that motioned like water as the models passed through it.

Dark magenta faux fur clad the walls of the penultimate room, while its square footprint saw floors decorated with a pale green marble.

The last room – a hexagonal shape – was themed with pastel pinks. Fur floors continued the pattern from the previous rooms, while matte plaster walls contrasted with the previous shiny surfaces for an unexpected conclusion. 

"Architecture helped us to describe the feeling we had: this strange, abstract place that's not inside and not outside…tactility and sensuality," Prada explained during a digital Q&A with students from around the world hosted in the show space following the collection's live stream on 17 Janurary.

"It was not important for us to create a narrative architectural context for the collection, more a feeling context," Simons added.  

The materials used in the set will be upcycled and repurposed, used in product displays and pop-ups for future Prada installations globally and donated to Meta, a Milan-based circular economy project that offers sustainable solutions for waste disposal.

Meta works with La Réserve des Arts, an association that makes raw material and decoration waste from fashion shows available to professionals and students in the cultural sector.

The show space is available to experience in 3D. This is one of AMO's many show spaces for Prada – for the fashion house's Spring Summer 2019 menswear show they designed a neon-lit space with inflatable Vernon Panton chairs.

Photography is by Agostino Osio, courtesy of OMA.