New Stores Combine Shopping and Public Spaces

"What lures you into a store: its design, or the merchandise? The question sounded preposterous until big-name fashion houses began retooling their shops with ambitious architecture that makes the clothes seem almost an afterthought. The alliances have been on the highest level: top of the list are Miuccia Prada and the visionary Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas; Issey Miyake and Frank Gehry...Koolhaas caught the shopping trend when he directed a group of students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design to produce a guide to shopping. They discovered that a shop in a museum or airport lounge is more profitable than one in a mall."