Rich in Dualities: Veja Store in Madrid by Plantea.

When presented with such an extraordinary ground floor space on the corner of Calle Barquillo and Fernando VI, in a classic building in the centre of Madrid, Plantea had no other choice but to make the existing patina their starting point. The site is a closed V shape with corner access: four openings to Barquillo and eight to Fernando IV.

Once stripped of cladding, a structure of brick load-bearing walls appeared—thick and supported on granite on the facade, while thinner, pine-framed columns and beams face inside. Their impressive character offered a very rare spatial quality. The solid quality of the permanent structure also reveals a vulnerable side from the modifications and scars suffered over time. Powerful and calm at once.

“We see no better solution than to reinforce this clearly perceived character,” explains the design team at Plantea. “The height of the existing openings is increased to the original height. The walls are cleaned of superfluous materials or elements, leaving the essential repairs or remains. It is necessary to touch a lot so that it seems that nothing has been touched. The dividing walls of lesser material quality are covered with a rough spray of plaster and perlite mortar, which accentuates the irregularity of the base.”

The ceiling was lined with a rough acoustic absorbing material, also housing the general lighting. The floor was treated with a high-quality cement mortar, which provides a continuous surface, except in the entrance hall, which is paved with a straight-cut clinker cobblestone of elongated proportion.

Plantea's Transformation of an Abandoned Adult Cinema in Madrid into Sala Equis.

The previous dark interiors reminiscent of its racy, X-rated past have been replaced with an undeniable air of sophistication and vintage elegance.

“With these operations, we try to elevate, complete and enhance the qualities of the existing,” add the designers, “to achieve a container toned in the red of the brick and the colour of the plaster, in different textures and variations. We try to link the traditional architecture of Madrid with the abstract condition, denuded, of modern architecture.”

In this container, the minimum possible elements are arranged. On each side of the V, a few central pieces and a linear shelf are fixed to one of the walls. They have opposing characters. The former is built with cast-in-place concrete, on a lost mould and with a formwork of old timber board. They speak the language of the unalterable, the profound, made with ‘earth’, like the brick of the structure. They serve as a bench, support, display or counter. The shelves are light, made of folded steel sheets, and float without touching the walls. The main collection is displayed on them, illuminated by its own light, brighter than the general light.

The set is complemented by mirrors, large and also floating on the brick pillars of the facade, multiplying the cross views. A large ficus tree gathers visitors at the entrance, and armchairs (designed by Joaquim Belsa in 1960 for Aresta) and recovered stools offer a place for rest. In the centre of the V, the store is completed with a shoe repair workshop.

The ‘sustainable’, resolutely modern and minimal philosophy of the Veja brand is expressed in a complex dialogue in this retail space. A place between the new and the traditional, the functional and the idealistic, the raw and the perfect, the found and the subtly added. The changing and the permanent.

A Shared Vision: IDEAL Restaurant by Lorenzo Botero & Martin Mendoza.

Inspired by the desert geography of the southern United States and from Baja California to the north of Mexico, Lorenzo and Martín’s work flows together into a harmonious concept grounded in a shared focus on materiality.

[Images courtesy of Plantea. Photography by Salva Lopez.]