Ode to footwear in a showroom with organic aesthetics by Tomás Amat Estudio de Arquitectura

The main features of the project are its organic forms that endow the space with a continuity usingporexpan and polyester

The footwear company “Wonders”, a family-owned business with decades under its belt located in Elche, one of the regions of Alicante with the longest craft tradition in the industry, has once again entrusted Tomás Amat Architecture Studio, Pablo Belda + Tomás Amat, with the project and design of its new showroom. A space where the architects had already worked when projecting the offices of Grupo Danubio, parent company of the brand.

The main objective of the Project, according to Tomás Amat, one of the founding members of the architectural studio, “it has been none other than to renovate the image of the company through the creation of a larger showroom capable of transmitting the essence of the artisan production of footwear, giving the product the leading role, without relinquishing the creation of a cutting-edge image”.

To this effect, the architects have decided to rebuild the showroom completely in order to adapt to the company's evolution by widening the central area to gain space and occupy an annexe area formerly used as a “eat-in kitchen” and also an old study. This way they have managed to extend the area to a total of 110,00 m2 of usable space around which the new showroom revolves. In this sense, says Pablo Belda, the other founding partner and project manager, “the action programme has been easy with the only difference being that, as opposed to the former showroom, we should also fit inside a specific corner that would serve as a model that could be adapted to future shops”.

This way, the result of the design emerges through a fluid and dynamic distribution of the space, with organic, neat and sleek lines that offer an experience to the buyer together with the detail and quality of the high performance footwear that the company offers. All of this provide the customer, remarks Amat, “the maximum possible exhibition area, without overburden the perimeter or the central area of the room, where there are two exempt columns that distort the continuous viewing of the exhibition we have sought, and that we have embraced in order to integrate them within the open-plan space by receding the contour of the shelves.”

The general distribution of the space is completed with a false ceiling, being this another essential part to the project that seeks to reflect the same idea carried out in the room. The architects wanted to play with the same curves used in the display area “generating tension among them and the interstices that house the lighting and part of the installations”, explains Belda. Three exempt nuvolas are drawn in strategic areas occupying the interstices to provide stage lighting to the project using the same language than the rest of the proposal.

Likewise, the false ceiling has served to arrange the air-conditioning system through the projected cavities with the intention of hiding it so that it does not break the continuity of the organic and delicate shapes that characterized the project.

The floor, previously of exposed concrete, has been coated with white Tecnocemento®. This hue has also been chosen to unify and homogenize the complete showroom (walls, furniture and ceiling), adding value to an environment that stands out for its great luminosity and that, it has rightly enhanced the only element that should be highlighted in the showroom: the footwear; virtually the only point of colour that stands out in the room, providing a dynamic and playful essence and a vibrant atmosphere.

Another unique feature of the showroom: furniture that draws on the Fallas scultures from Valencia

The playful and up-beat spirit has gone farther and it hides in the depths and bases of the project. All the furniture used for the product display has been specially designed and produced and executed using techniques originated by the world of the Fallas sculptures.

These are, clarify both partners architects of the studio, “polyester coated porexpan modules that have allowed us to play with those organic shapes we have been talking about throughout the project and that have provided the strength needed to display the product”. It was manufactured in the workshop, while the former showroom was being demolished, and assembled on site in less than week.

“The truth is”, says Amat, “that applying in this project the handcraft manufacturing techniques used in the Fallas, the festivities par excellence in the Valencia Region and one of the most popularnation and worldwide, has been an inspiration we wanted to imbue the work with”. “It is always stimulating to learn from other trades and borrow techniques from them that you can then apply in your own field of work”, indicates Belda.

A strategic and organized display

More in detail, for the bespoke display furniture, the architectural studio has proposed three different heights through a continuous shelving system with variable width. These structures adapt to the winding and sinuous outline of the project. The first one situated at 25cm from the floor and an area of approx.7.25 m2, the second one at 45cm form the floor and an area of 13.30m2 and the third one at 110cm from the floor and an exhibition area of approx. 8.55m2.

To complete the display requirements made by the client, a couple of exempt pieces with the same characteristics and heights than the perimeter shelving have been proposed. In addition, the centre counter follows as well the play of lines used for the exhibition area.

Finally, the corner has been planned, instead, separated from the general exhibition and with a different language due to fact that it would need to be adapted as a simple solution for future shops where it is intended to be placed.

Source: Tomás Amat Estudio de Arquitectura
Photos: David Frutos®
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