SPACE KOREA
ACNE STUDIOS
Interview by Park Sungjin
Photo by Annabel Elston
January 2016
CULTURED MAGAZINE
THE ART OF THE FASHION FLAGSHIP (AND THE FOUR ARCHITECTS GETTING IT RIGHT)
by John Glendall. Photograph of Acne Studios Seoul by Annabel Elston. April/May 2019
“We don’t actually need shops anymore,” says Sophie Hicks of her work designing highly-acclaimed retail environments around the world. The London-based architect is responsible for the spaces of an impressive range of blue-chip clients, including Paul Smith, Yohji Yamamoto, Acne Studios and Chloé, but with luxury brands seeking out her architectural imprimatur, she has taken a measured approach to these commissions.
“It’s so much more convenient to look for clothes online and have them delivered to your house,” she says, explaining why she creates destinations that are more about conveying the essence of a brand than offering endless racks of inventory. In her work with Acne Studios, for example, Hicks wanted to create the impression of Sweden, where the brand and its founder, Jonny Johansson, are based—but she needed to construct that in Manhattan’s West Village, and in the Cheongdam district of Seoul.
“I didn’t really know Sweden at all before I started with Acne Studios,” she admits. In order to familiarize herself, she spent several weeks in the Scandinavian nation walking through neighborhoods, visiting museums, going to restaurants and shops and, perhaps most importantly, spending time with Johansson.
In Seoul, she designed a new building from the ground up, with its concrete structure referencing what she calls the “groundedness of the Swedes.” The inside, meanwhile, replicates the light qualities— “very cool, very even”—of the distinctive Swedish landscape. Sun filters through the translucent panels of the façade, while supplemental light is concealed behind a polycarbonate ceiling, making a cool, even distribution of light throughout the day—“very much like Swedish light.”
Hicks, who early in her career was an editor at Vogue, sees value in new stores, but, as she cautions, “the environment of the store is so important. It has to be something customers can’t get online.”
MAGAZINES
VOGUE DEUTSCH
DIE BAUHERRIN
By Ingeborg Harms
December 2016
AMERICAN VOGUE
“THE HOUSE BETWEEN TWO LAKES”: Inside Model Edie Campbell’s Lush Northamptonshire Bolthole
by Ellie Pithers
Photographs by Simon Watson
Styling by Tabitha Simmons
October 2021
IGNANT
ACNE STUDIOS · SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
by Stephanie Wade
Photographs by Annabel Elston and Fabio Ongarato
October 2019
SHOTENKENCHIKU
OVERSEAS INTERIOR, YOHJI YAMAMOTO PARIS CAMBON
By Shotenkenchiku
Photographs by Takumi Ogihara
May 2009
ARCHITEKTUR & WOHNEN
SOPHIES WELT
By Gesa Engelschall
Photographs by Michael Mundy
January 1997
DETAIL
CENTRAL AND SECLUDED: SOPHIE HICK’S PRIZE-WINNING PRIVATE RESIDENCE
by Edina Obermoser
Photographs by Annabel Elston and Sophie Hicks Architects
January 2020
CONCRETE QUARTERLY
VANISHING TRICKS
by Nick Jones
Photographs by Annabel Elston and Sophie Hicks Architects
Winter 2019
WSJ MAGAZINE
TRACKED SOPHIE HICKS
By Ned Beauman
Photographs by Julia Grassi
December 2018 / January 2019
CORRIERE DELLA SERA – LIVING
IL CEMENTO GENTILE / COUNTRY DREAM
by Paola Menaldo
Photos by Adrian Gaut
March 2022